Citation, Commencement, Effect and Interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Childcare Payments (Eligibility) (Amendment and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2025 and come into force on 15th September 2025.

(2) Subject to regulation 3, the amendments made by regulation 2(2) and (3)(b) have effect in relation to an expected work start date which falls on or after 16th October 2025.

(3) In these Regulations, “ expected work start date ” has the same meaning as in regulation 2(2).

Amendments to the Childcare Payments (Eligibility) Regulations 2015

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

(2) In regulation 9 (the requirement to be in qualifying paid work), for paragraph (2) substitute—

“(2) For the purposes of this regulation, where a person—

(a)has accepted an offer of work on or before the date of the declaration of eligibility; or

(b)is absent from work on unpaid leave on the date of the declaration of eligibility and intends to return to work;

that person is to be treated as in paid work as an employed person during the applicable period.

(2A) In this regulation—

“applicable period” means, in respect of a person (“P”) the period specified in the entry in column 2 of the table which corresponds with the entry in column 1 of the table which contains, at the date that P makes the declaration of eligibility, P’s expected work start date.

“expected work start date” means the date, at the time the person makes the declaration of eligibility, on which a person expects to begin a new job or return to work after a period of absence on unpaid leave or leave within regulation 12(1)(b) to (g), (i) to (m), (p) or (q).”.

(3) In regulation 12 (qualifying paid work: time off in connection with sickness or parenting)—

(a)in paragraph (2), for “paragraphs (3), (4) and (5)” substitute “paragraphs (3) and (4)”,

(b)in paragraph (4), for the words from “only” to the end substitute “during the applicable period as defined in regulation 9(2A)”,

(c)omit paragraph (5), and

(d)in paragraph (7)(b), omit “, (h)”.

Transitional Provisions

3. For an expected work start date which falls in the period beginning on 16th October 2025 and ending on 31st January 2026, the provisions of the Childcare Payments (Eligibility) Regulations 2015 that are amended by regulation 2(2) and (3)(b) are to be read as if—

(a)in regulation 9—

(i) in the words after paragraph (2)(b), for “the applicable period” there were substituted “the period beginning on 15th September 2025 and ending with the day before the day on which the person starts or returns to work” ; and

(ii) in paragraph (2A) the definition “applicable period” were omitted; and

(b) in regulation 12, in paragraph (4), for “the applicable period as defined in regulation 9(2A)” there were substituted “the period beginning on 15th September 2025 and ending with the day before the day on which the person returns to work” .