--- title: "Tax-Free Childcare New IT Solution: Helping Parents Access Government Funds Via Cashless Payment Systems" ocid: "ocds-b5fd17-a10741b1-9578-4c5e-96d9-fe4886384f6e" canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-a10741b1-9578-4c5e-96d9-fe4886384f6e" markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-a10741b1-9578-4c5e-96d9-fe4886384f6e.md" json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-a10741b1-9578-4c5e-96d9-fe4886384f6e.json" source: "Contracts Finder" current_stage: "Planning" buyer: "H M REVENUE & CUSTOMS" published: "2023-11-14" --- # Tax-Free Childcare New IT Solution: Helping Parents Access Government Funds Via Cashless Payment Systems Buyer: H M REVENUE & CUSTOMS Current stage: Planning OCID: ocds-b5fd17-a10741b1-9578-4c5e-96d9-fe4886384f6e [View canonical contract page](https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-a10741b1-9578-4c5e-96d9-fe4886384f6e) [Download OCDS JSON](https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-a10741b1-9578-4c5e-96d9-fe4886384f6e.json) ## Summary The Tax-Free Childcare New IT Solution procurement process, led by H M Revenue & Customs, aims to enhance access to government funds via cashless payment systems. The process is currently in the planning stage, with an engagement end date set for January 15, 2024. This opportunity falls under the financial and insurance services category and is targeted at businesses in the United Kingdom, particularly those offering IT solutions to support childcare cost management. For businesses providing software services related to cashless payment systems used in schools, this tender presents a chance for growth by supporting eligible working parents in accessing government childcare support more efficiently. HMRC is seeking input on potential Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to integrate with cashless payment systems, facilitating a smoother customer journey. This opportunity is suitable for SMEs and VCSEs looking to contribute to improving access to Tax-Free Childcare for families across the UK. ## Notice His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) helps families and individuals with targeted financial support, alongside collecting tax to pay for the UK's public services. The department is taking steps to support working parents with their childcare costs by improving access to Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) by introducing a technical enhancement for educational cashless payment systems. This technical investment supports the government's ambition for wraparound childcare, that no matter where parents live, they should be able to access wraparound childcare for primary-age children in their local area. Enabling access to TFC through cashless payment systems will help many parents access government support more easily. What is Tax-Free Childcare (TFC)? Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) (https://www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare) is a government childcare support scheme. Eligible parents can get up to PS500 every 3 months (up to PS2,000 a year) for each of their children to help with the costs of childcare. This goes up to PS1,000 every 3 months if a child is disabled (up to PS4,000 a year). Our challenge Many schools use cashless payment systems to manage and process payments from parents such as dinner money, school trips and before and after school clubs. These applications currently do not allow parents to use government childcare support, with many working parents missing out on childcare funding for breakfast and after school clubs, which they may be entitled to. Currently parents are only able to access government funding to pay for their childcare by logging into the Childcare Service on gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/sign-in-childcare-account). We want to help parents, making it easier for them to access government support, through other digital applications. Your Opportunity HMRC are scoping technical requirements and would like to understand market interest and insight on the effectiveness on potential Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Our ambition is a smoother customer journey for parents who use cashless payment systems to access government support to reduce their childcare costs. Therefore, we are keen to understand how our APIs can work with cashless payment systems to support eligible working parents access the government funding they are entitled to. If you are a software company that operates a cashless payment system that has been adopted by schools that parents use to pay for their breakfast and after school costs and would like to find out more about our solution, please contact the team by email at taxfreechildcareteam@hmrc.gov.uk . This PIN is not a call for competition, however it will be available to comment on for sixty days if you wish to contact us. Information received will be treated as confidential. Additional information: How Tax-Free Childcare works * Working parents can open an online Tax-Free Childcare account using their Government Gateway / One Login account. For every PS8 a parent pays into their account, the government will pay in PS2 for them to use to pay their provider. For example, if a parent's childcare bill was PS500/month, they'd multiply PS500 x 0.8 to get PS400. They'd put PS400 into their Tax-Free Childcare account and the remaining PS100 (20%) will then be topped up by the Government. Across the year, this reduces PS6,000 annual costs to PS4,800. * The scheme is available for children up to 11 years old (up to 16 if disabled) where their parent(s) meet eligibility criteria regarding their income. Information on eligibility criteria can be found on www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare * Parent applies for TFC and, if eligible, a TFC account is set up for each child they applied for. Parent then reconfirms their details every three months. * Parent deposit money into their child's TFC account, government adds top-up, then parent pays out money to a childcare provider that has signed up for TFC. ## Key Details | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication source | Contracts Finder | | Latest notice | https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/6fd9d229-874c-4c93-bc98-52b9f91380c7 | | Notice type | Market Engagement Notice | | Procurement type | Standard | | Procurement category | Not specified | | Procurement method | Not Specified | | Procurement method details | Not specified | | Tender suitability | SME, VCSE | | Awardee scale | Not specified | | All stages | Planning | ## Dates | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication date | 14 Nov 2023 | | Submission deadline | Not specified | | Future notice date | 15 Jan 2024 | | Award date | Not specified | | Contract period | Not specified | | Recurrence | Not specified | ## Values | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender value | Not specified | | Lots value | Not specified | | Awards value | Not specified | | Contracts value | Not specified | ## Status | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender status | Planning | | Lots status | Not specified | | Awards status | Not specified | | Contracts status | Not specified | ## Buyer | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Main buyer | H M REVENUE & CUSTOMS | | Locality | LONDON | | Post town | South West London | | Postcode | SW1A 2BQ | | Country | England | | ITL 1 | TLI London | | ITL 2 | TLI3 Inner London - West | | ITL 3 | TLI35 Westminster and City of London | | Local authority | Westminster | | Electoral ward | St James's | | Westminster constituency | Cities of London and Westminster | | Delivery location | Not specified | ## CPV Codes ### Divisions - 66 - Financial and insurance services ### Codes - 66000000 - Financial and insurance services ## Release History - 14 Nov 2023 at 14:22 - Planning - Market Engagement Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/6fd9d229-874c-4c93-bc98-52b9f91380c7 - 14 Nov 2023 at 10:02 - Planning - Market Engagement Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/6fd9d229-874c-4c93-bc98-52b9f91380c7 ## Documents - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/6fd9d229-874c-4c93-bc98-52b9f91380c7 14th November 2023 - Early engagement notice on Contracts Finder - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/35477675-b35c-4a74-b092-ffd7e7d7449f Market Engagement Slides ## Notice URLs - https://www.gov.uk/sign-in-childcare-account - https://www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare ## Provenance This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-a10741b1-9578-4c5e-96d9-fe4886384f6e. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-a10741b1-9578-4c5e-96d9-fe4886384f6e.json.