What is the Wraparound Childcare scheme?
The MOD Wraparound childcare (WAC) scheme – also known as ‘Out of School care’ in Wales and ‘School Aged Childcare’ in Scotland – was developed by Defence to help eligible Service families with childcare costs. Initially the scheme was exclusively available in the UK and it has since been expanded to overseas locations.
Eligible families can claim for up to 20 hours per week of funding for each child attending childcare settings before and after school care during term time.
Please note: The WAC scheme does not provide childcare spaces, it is funding for costs incurred when eligible families pay for before and after school childcare. As childcare can be oversubscribed or difficult to access in some areas, we suggest families research childcare options early and prior to accepting assignments to ensure that provision can meet their needs.
There are 3 initiatives under that WAC scheme: Wraparound Childcare; Wraparound Childcare Overseas; and Primary School Aged Childcare Overseas (PSACO).
Who is eligible for the WAC scheme?
- Service personnel (Regular and Full Time Reserve Service) assigned within the UK or serving on an unaccompanied assignment overseas, with the family residing in the UK.
- Children for whom the Service person has parental responsibility for must be aged between 4 and 11 years old (4-16 years old if in receipt of disability benefits) and attend school full time (including home education).
- Children must be recorded on JPA.
- The Service person and their partner, or a sole parent in a lone parent family, must be in paid employment, or re-starting work within the next 31 days, earning a weekly income equivalent to 16 hours at the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage.
- The Service person must be financially responsible for a child who usually lives with them at least 50% of the time, unless separated due to Service commitments (deployment, residential courses) or are on unaccompanied assignments.
- The Serving person and their partner (if applicable) must each have a net adjusted income of less than £100K per year.
- The childcare provider must be registered with Ofsted (or equivalent) and be based in the UK and accept Tax Free Childcare (TFC) as payment.
- Each child must have a HMRC tax-free childcare account for each child.
Eligibility criteria for WAC Overseas
From January 2025, WAC will be available in some overseas locations. The WAC team are looking at an offer to include all overseas locations, however the overseas picture is complex and a single solution may not fit all countries.
- The scheme is open to regular and full-time reserve service (FTRS) (all commitment types) personnel. Service personnel will be eligible following their completion of Phase 1 training until their termination date.
- The Service person has an assignment to a location within the European Economic Area and Switzerland (EEA&S) or uses a Defence Children Services (DCS) school or setting overseas for before and after school childcare.
- The child for whom the Service person has parental responsibility must be aged 4 to 11 years (4 to 16 years if in receipt of certain disability benefits), must attend school (including home education) and be living with the Serving person for at least 50% of the time unless separated due to service commitments (deployment, residential courses).
- An active Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) account must be in place with HMRC for each child that a Service person wants to claim funding for, whether using DCS or host nation childcare providers. Active means that you reconfirm your account every 3 months and receive the 20% top-up from HMRC when you add money into the account, or receive the 20% top-up from the manual TFC process if using host nation childcare providers.
- If using host nation providers, the provider must be registered, regulated and inspected by host nation authorities.
- The Service person and their partner (or a sole parent in a single parent family) must be in paid employment, be self-employed, starting or re-starting work within the next 31 days and have a weekly income equivalent to at least 16 hours at the National Minimum or Living Wage.
- Both partners (or a sole parent in a single parent family) must have an adjusted net income of £100,000 or less per annum each.
Who isn’t eligible?
- Foster children are not eligible.
- Children who are normally resident elsewhere, for example those living with another parent or relative.
- Children who attend boarding school (either full or part boarding) are not eligible for WAC scheme. This includes those families paying for the costs themselves or by claiming the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA).
Note: Children who attend an independent school as a day pupil, this could be paid for privately or by CEA, could be eligible for WAC funding but all other criteria need to be met.
How to claim?
WAC claims and registrations are now completed in JPA under the ‘My child allowances – WAC’ section. The new process launched on 19/02/2024.
The new system will automatically calculate your capped rate and how much you can claim using the details that you add from your invoice and the childcare provider information you provided on your registration form. The separate claims calculator is no longer required. Once submitted, your claims status will show as either submitted, pending, or approved depending on which state it is at.
Approved claims will be paid at the end of each month with your salary and included on your payslip. Claims will be subject to monthly payroll cut-off dates.
Further information
Full details of the Wraparound Childcare offer are available in the DIN for WAC #2022DIN01-079.
Childcare for service children (gov.uk)
Defence Childcare Portal on defnet or Defence Connect
If you have any questions or concerns about WAC, please contact the MOD Wraparound Childcare Implementation and Policy Team via email at: [email protected].
