Citation and Commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Childcare Payments (Coronavirus and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2020 and come into force on 21st July 2020.

Amendments to the Childcare Payments (Eligibility) Regulations 2015

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

3. In regulation 15 (income not to exceed a certain level)—

(a) after paragraph (1) insert—

“ (1A) A person who is a critical worker—

(a) who does not expect their adjusted net income for the tax year 6th April 2020 to 5th April 2021 to exceed £150,000;

(b) who, in the absence of the coronavirus outbreak, would not expect their adjusted net income for that tax year to exceed £100,000; and

(c) who satisfies the condition in paragraph (1B),

is treated as meeting the condition of eligibility in section 10.

(1B) The condition is that, where the critical worker’s income exceeds £100,000, that excess must be mainly attributable to earnings from work undertaken directly or indirectly as a result of the incidence or transmission of coronavirus. ” ;

(b) in paragraph (4) before the definition of “hypothetical adjusted net income” insert—

“ “coronavirus” means severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2);

“critical worker” means a worker in any part of the United Kingdom in a critical sector listed in the document entitled “Critical workers who can access schools or educational settings” in the version published by the Cabinet Office and the Department for Education on 16 June 2020 ( 3 ) ; ” .

Amendments to the Childcare Payments Regulations 2015

4.The Childcare Payments Regulations 2015( 4 ) are amended as follows.

5. After regulation 16 (variation of relevant maximum: infrastructure failure) insert—

“ Payments that may be made from childcare accounts

16A. —(1) A payment is treated as a permitted payment where it includes a reasonable fee payable to an intermediary.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1), where there is more than one intermediary in the payment chain the total of all fees must be reasonable.

(3) In this regulation “intermediary” means a supplier of an electronic payment system which allows persons to make payments into that system for the ultimate purpose of making payments to qualifying childcare providers. ” .