Working Families Entitlement

Eligibility checking

Providers must use the 'Capita Provider Portal Working Parents Entitlement' tile to check all eligibility codes that parents provide. Guidance on using the tile can be found in the Services for Young Children Moodle site. See Provider Portal tutorials in the 'Early Years Education' tile.

Once an eligibility code has been checked, providers must regularly review their Expiration Dashboard in the Working Parents Entitlement tile to ensure they remind parents to renew their codes in good time.

When an eligibility code is issued to parents it will have a maximum of 3 months validity, followed by a grace period. Up to 28 days before the end date of a code, parents must log into their HMRC Gateway account and reconfirm their circumstances, their code will then be extended for a further 3 months. HMRC contact parents by email to remind them to reconfirm, however the responsibility remains with Hampshire childcare providers (as part of the Early Years Education Funding Payment terms and conditions) to ensure that all eligible parents are reminded to reconfirm their codes within the designated timescales.

When checking the validity of an eligibility code, providers must keep two criteria in mind:

1. The child must be age eligible for funding
2. The code must have an eligibility start date within the previous funding period (before 31 December for use in the spring, before 31 March for use in the summer, and before 31 August for use in the autumn)

Funding start dates for 9 month old children

Autumn 2024	Spring 2025	Summer 2025
Date of birth between 01 September 2022 and 30 November 2023	Date of birth between 01 January 2023 and 31 March 2024	Date of birth between 01 April 2023 and 30 June 2024

Autumn 2025	Spring 2026	Summer 2026
Date of birth between 01 September 2023 and 30 November 2024	Date of birth between 01 January 2024 and 31 March 2025	Date of birth between 01 April 2024 and 30 June 2025

Early years funding starts the period after the child’s birthday. For example, when a child turns 9 months in the summer period, funding starts in the autumn.

Codes in their grace period

The grace period is for use if parents fall out of eligibility due to change in their work circumstances. The grace period is to allow them to retain eligibility for a short period whilst looking for new employment.

Children cannot start claiming for the first time at a provider when they are within their grace period. The Capita Provider Portal is set up to prevent claims where the eligibility code does not meet the required validity dates.

If a child starting with you has been claiming Working Families Entitlement at their previous setting but their code is now in the grace period when you need to use it, you must complete an appeal form, explaining why the code has not been reconfirmed and the name of the previous setting who used the eligibility code.

Appeals process for codes not obtained or reconfirmed in time (also called Amber cases)

In some cases, there may be extenuating circumstances where a code was not obtained or reconfirmed in time to be used in the current funding period. If you feel this is the case, you can ask Services for Young Children for the code to be back dated so that it can be used.

Once you have run the check in the Provider Portal and realise the code was not obtained by deadline and wish to make an appeal, you must add the child to your headcount claim with zero hours and complete the online appeal form.

You should not ask parents to contact Services for Young Children directly, or to complete this form themselves.