Advice for Parents/Guardians
The Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme (NICSS) is a Department of Education initiative aimed at reducing childcare costs by 15% for eligible working parents of qualifying children.
The subsidy scheme targets working parents who are eligible for Tax Free Childcare (TFC) and have children who have not yet started primary school. Starting from 1st September 2024[1], any parent receiving TFC for a child who has not yet enrolled in primary school will be eligible to participate in the scheme provided their childcare provider is signed up with HMRC as a TFC provider.
[1] The Executive has provided funding for the scheme up to the end of March 2025. Evaluation and budget availability will determine future funding.
If you are not registered for TFC, but would like to learn more about the scheme, please click here.
How can you benefit?
The subsidy will only be available to parents who register their child with the scheme.
STEP 1 – Check that your provider is registered for the scheme
Ask your childcare provider if they are registered for the scheme as only registered and eligible providers can apply the NICSS subsidy.
STEP 2 – Prepare by collating all the information required for registration
We will be asking all eligible parents to register their child(ren) from August 5th. Please have the following information ready before starting the registration process:
A. Tax Free Childcare Payment Reference for your child. This number can be found on correspondence from HMRC and is typically a combination of (Initial letter of their first name) (First three letters of their second name) (number characters)
e.g. for Adam Smith this could be (ASMI#####)
We understand that some parents, don’t use the online TFC system, and therefore will not have been allocated with a Tax-Free Childcare Payment Reference. If this is the case, please do reach out to us at nicssparents@early-years.org and we will allocate you with a unique reference number that you can use to register your child.
B. Copy of the TFC quarterly confirmation letter/notice for your child. Please take a screen shot or screen grab of this communication from HMRC which clearly shows:
1. name of your child,
2. the quarterly expiration date
You will be required to upload this document as part of the registration process. (If you are waiting on HMRC to approve your current eligibly and don’t have a current approval document please use the most recent one for now.)
If you have more than one eligible child, you will need to complete the process separately for each child.
STEP 3 - Registering your child
Watch this short video below to see the registration process for parents:
Next Steps
Please check your provider has registered with the scheme and have the required information ready in preparation for child registration.
If you require any further information or assistance, please complete the form below.