In February, the government’s tax-free childcare account system had an issue which meant payments into some accounts were duplicated. In my case, a payment of £779 into my daughter’s account was credited five times. The affected accounts were frozen while the extra payments were reclaimed. Five months on, my daughter’s account remains frozen, and I am unable to get the funds to pay her nursery bills. I also can’t make any new payments into the account in order to benefit from the tax-free allowance. Each time I phone, I’m told they can give no indication of when this will be resolved.
MM, Newbury
Tax-free childcare is a government scheme to subsidise the cost of childcare. For every £8 paid in by a parent, a £2 top-up is provided by the state. More than 8,000 families were locked out of their accounts in February when their deposits were erroneously multiplied by the banking provider used by NS&I, which administers the scheme, and they were collectively paid £18.6m in top-ups instead of the £3.1m due. Some nearly lost their nursery places when they were unable to pay the fees.
