How CareHours Check builds its result

CareHours Check is a public explainer, not an official checker. It takes the household answers you enter, maps them against the most visible GOV.UK childcare-rule checkpoints, and then returns a conservative result bucket: likely fit, needs manual check, or unlikely on these answers.

Rules behind the free-hours route

• The tool treats Free Childcare for Working Parents as an England-first route because the detailed free-hours systems differ across the UK.
• It checks whether the child is in the usual 9 months to 4 years window.
• It checks whether the child usually lives with the applicant household.
• It applies the visible £100,000 adjusted-net-income cap to each relevant adult.
• It uses the GOV.UK minimum-earnings pattern for the next 3 months: £2,643.68 for adults aged 21+, £2,256.80 for ages 18–20, and £1,664 for under-18s or apprentices.

Where the tool stays cautious

• Newly self-employed: GOV.UK says the minimum-earnings rule can be looser in the first 12 months, so the tool avoids hard-failing those cases.
• Leave and return-to-work patterns: these can still qualify, but the exact route depends on official service logic, so the tool may downgrade to a manual-check result instead of claiming a green light.
• Benefit-based or carer’s-leave exceptions: the tool only treats them as plausible when the other adult clearly looks to be in work.
• Foster care: GOV.UK points to a manual route through the social worker and local authority, so the tool never treats foster cases as simple online-application wins.

Rules behind Tax-Free Childcare

• The tool checks the core age pattern: usually 11 or under, or 16 or under if disabled.
• It uses the same work-and-earnings pattern as a cautious shorthand for the childcare service.
• It does not assume provider access: the result is softened if the childcare provider is not registered or not signed up to the scheme.
• It highlights the government top-up: £2 for every £8 you pay in, usually capped at £500 every 3 months or £1,000 every 3 months for a disabled child.

What the result does not mean

• It does not create a childcare account.
• It does not verify documents or provider registrations live.
• It does not replace the official childcare service or advice from your local authority.
• It does not fully model every devolved-nation edge case, every immigration nuance, or every irregular-income scenario.

Primary sources behind the logic

• GOV.UK Free Childcare for Working Parents: age bands, work patterns, income thresholds, high-income cap, and immigration basics.
• GOV.UK Tax-Free Childcare: top-up structure, child age ceiling, and provider signup requirement.
• GOV.UK Help paying for childcare: approved-provider requirements and nation-specific provider guidance.