Citation and commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Childcare Payments (Amendment) Regulations 2017 and come into force on 7th December 2017.

Amendment of the Childcare Payments Regulations 2015

2. The Childcare Payments Regulations( 2 ) 2015 are amended as follows

3. In regulation 5 (variation of entitlement periods)—

(a) omit “or” at the end of sub-paragraph (1)(b) and insert at the end of sub-paragraph (1)(c)—

“ ; or

(d) in order to align the entitlement period of an account holder (“A”) with the declaration period of A’s partner under regulation 15 of the Childcare (Early Years Provision Free of Charge) (Extended Entitlement) Regulations 2016 ( 3 ) . ” , and

(b) after paragraph (1) insert—

“ (1A) The length of the variation referred to in paragraph (1) shall not exceed two months. ” .

4. In regulation 17 (compensatory payments) for paragraph (3A) substitute—

“ (3A) The circumstances specified in this paragraph are that—

(a) a person is unable to open a childcare account, or

(b) a person’s childcare account fails to function effectively

for a continuous period of at least 14 days, due to a serious technical failure affecting HMRC or the account provider. ” .