UK childcare threshold calculator
If your adjusted net income goes just over £100,000, your family can lose more than £10,000 a year in childcare support. This tool helps you estimate whether an extra pension contribution could bring you back under the limit, what that may cost after tax relief, and how that compares with the childcare value you may keep.
Built for UK parents who need a quick, practical answer. This is a simplified planning tool, not financial or tax advice.
Calculator
Enter your current figures to estimate your adjusted net income, how far above the threshold you may be, and how much extra pension contribution could help.
Optional next steps
Based on your result, increasing pension contributions is often the simplest route if you want to stay below the threshold. These options are here to help whether you want a straightforward pension route, advice before changing anything, or an alternative provider to compare.
Most parents in this position either increase their pension directly or speak to an adviser before making changes.
These are optional next steps, not recommendations tailored to your circumstances.
A straightforward option if you mainly want to start or increase pension contributions without adding much friction.
Often the most direct route for parents who want to act on their result and keep the process simple.
View PensionBeeBest if you would rather speak to an adviser before changing pension contributions or making a tax-sensitive decision.
Useful if you want a professional view on childcare, pension contributions and the wider household trade-offs.
Find an adviserA guided platform option if you want an alternative provider rather than the most direct pension route.
Helpful if you prefer a managed experience and want another established option to compare. Nutmeg is now part of J.P. Morgan Personal Investing.
Visit NutmegHow the £100k childcare cliff works
The difficult part of this rule is how sharp it feels in practice. If your adjusted net income goes above £100,000, you can lose access to valuable childcare support, including 30 hours free childcare and Tax-Free Childcare.
For many families, that is not a small technical tax issue. It can mean losing support worth thousands of pounds a year because income has moved just beyond a single threshold.
Using the simple assumptions in this calculator, one child in 30 funded hours can be worth around £9,120 a year. With two eligible children, the amount at stake can be much higher. That is why so many parents are really asking the same question: how much pension do you need to keep 30 hours free childcare?
This page is designed to answer that question quickly and clearly.
How much pension do you need?
In simple terms, you usually need enough extra pension contribution to bring your adjusted net income back to £100,000 or slightly below.
If your adjusted net income is £2,400 above the limit, a further pension contribution of roughly £2,400 for the year may be enough in this simplified model. The key comparison is then what that pension top-up may cost you after tax relief versus the childcare value you may be protecting.
That is why the calculator shows both sides of the decision: the approximate monthly pension cost and the approximate monthly childcare support at stake.
What counts as adjusted net income?
Adjusted net income is the figure that matters for this threshold, not just your headline salary.
Adjusted net income = gross salary - pension contribution amount - grossed-up Gift Aid donations
This tool uses a simple planning formula because pension contributions and Gift Aid can reduce ANI for threshold purposes. We gross up Gift Aid by dividing the donation by 0.8, which is a practical planning shortcut rather than a substitute for formal tax advice.
The important point is that a salary above £100,000 does not automatically mean you are over the childcare limit. Your pension and Gift Aid position can materially change the answer.
Why pension contributions can help
For many families, pension contributions are the cleanest lever available.
In this simplified model, extra pension contributions reduce adjusted net income. That means a pension top-up can potentially do two useful things at once: help preserve childcare support now and increase long-term retirement savings.
To keep the calculator practical, we also show a rough net-cost estimate after tax relief. We assume that each additional £1 paid into pension costs about 60p in take-home terms for a higher earner. That will not be exact for everyone, but it helps frame the real decision more clearly.
The point is not that pension is always the right answer. The point is that for parents near the threshold, the cost of acting can be much lower than the cost of doing nothing.
What this calculator is showing
The most useful part of this decision is often not the annual figure. It is the monthly trade-off.
If an extra pension contribution costs around a few hundred pounds a month after tax relief, but protects childcare support worth much more than that each month, the decision can become much clearer.
This is still a simplified planning tool, not a guarantee of eligibility. But it is designed to make the practical household comparison easier to see at a glance.
Worked examples
These examples show how the numbers can change once you look at adjusted net income rather than salary alone.
A parent earning £102,000 may assume they are automatically over the limit. But if they are already making meaningful pension contributions, their adjusted net income may already be below £100,000. In that case, they may not need to do anything further to protect childcare eligibility.
A parent with one eligible child may find that a relatively modest monthly pension top-up is enough to move adjusted net income back under the threshold. The pension cost after tax relief can be far lower than the monthly value of the childcare support being protected.
If you are materially above £100,000, the required pension contribution will be larger. Even so, for some families, especially with more than one eligible child, the trade-off can still be financially sensible. The calculator helps you compare the size of the pension top-up with the childcare value at stake.
FAQ
Straight answers to the questions parents usually ask when they are trying to protect 30 hours free childcare or Tax-Free Childcare.
If your adjusted net income goes above £100,000, you can lose eligibility for 30 hours free childcare and Tax-Free Childcare. For many families, that means losing support worth thousands of pounds a year.
Usually, you need enough extra pension contribution to bring your adjusted net income back to £100,000 or just below it. The exact amount depends on your salary, current pension contributions and any Gift Aid donations. This calculator estimates the annual and monthly figure using a simplified planning approach.
Adjusted net income is the income figure used for certain higher-income thresholds. In this tool, we estimate it by taking gross salary and subtracting pension contributions and grossed-up Gift Aid donations. It is a planning estimate, not a formal tax calculation.
Yes, they often can. That is why pension contributions are so relevant for parents near the childcare threshold. In this calculator, pension contributions reduce adjusted net income directly as a simplified planning assumption.
It can. This tool uses a simple gross-up method by dividing your donation by 0.8, which is a common high-level approach when estimating ANI. You should still check the exact effect for your circumstances.
Not necessarily. Salary alone does not settle the question. Your adjusted net income may be lower once pension contributions and Gift Aid are taken into account, which is why checking ANI matters.
Not always. It can be an effective route for many higher earners because it may preserve childcare support while increasing retirement savings, but cash flow, pension allowances and personal circumstances still matter.
No. This is an independent, simplified guidance tool designed to help parents think through the decision in plain English. You should verify important decisions against official HMRC guidance or with a qualified adviser.
Important disclaimer
This calculator is designed to help you think through the £100,000 childcare threshold in practical terms. It uses simplified assumptions, average-rate childcare estimates and a high-level tax-relief approximation to make the decision easier to understand.
It is not financial advice, tax advice or regulated guidance. Salary sacrifice, bonuses, self-employment income, partnership income, pension allowance rules and your wider tax position can all affect the real answer.
Before acting, check the latest official HMRC guidance and consider speaking to a qualified adviser if the figures are important to your household budget.