Guide to reconfirmation on the early years portal and known issues – 14 November 2017

Please note the screenshots below for how to check who needs to reconfirm

Already on your funding return

Choose funding return entry from the main menu

Select 30 hours free childcare

Refer to the recheck date and grace period end date columns

In this example above all the children with a re-check date before 31/12/17 must re-check with HMRC. The one with a grace period of 31/03/18 may be able to keep the entitlement in the spring but there are several rules attached which will be covered later. The child with a re-check date in 2018 will be eligible for spring as this is in the next funding period.

On your future return list

If you have added children to your future funding return, e.g. to start in January the same re-check rules apply; these records can be viewed by following the screenshots below.

Choose 30 hours free childcare from the main menu

Then choose view children on future register on the right hand side of the screen

Refer to the re-check date and grace period end date columns

In this example there are two children who will need to re-check before 31/12/2017 to ensure they will still be entitled in spring. This is because a child cannot start a place when they are in their grace period, which these two will fall into if the parent does not reconfirm. If they do not reconfirm before 31/12/17 they will not be eligible in spring. The ones with a re-check date in 2018 will be eligible as this is in the next funding period.

Process for parents

To be clear there is no advantage to the parent to not re-check in time, as their re-check date is only moved on three months from when they should have originally reconfirmed. For example, if they should have done thison 15/09/17, but did so in November their next re-check date would be 15/12/2017, so they will have to reconfirm again next month.

HMRC contact parents four weeks before their re-check date to ask them to log into their childcare account and reconfirm their eligibility. If they fail to reconfirm in time they are then contacted again to say they are now in a grace period and could lose the entitlement. These communications will be via email or letter depending on what options the parent chose when they applied.

When the parent reconfirms in most instances they will receive an immediate answer and if they are still eligible they will be issued a new message stating what their next recheck date is. This will then be updated in the early years portal the following morning (however please allow up to 48 hours in case of any issues with the HMRC system sending this notification across).

If the parent reconfirms and is told they are no longer eligible then the grace period will apply and they can continue to receive their entitlement but only with their current provider. To be clear, no child can start a place in the grace period or change provider, this is because HMRC view the grace period to be that you are no longer eligible and so to allow the parent time to arrange other childcare provision (outside of the 30 hours scheme) for when the grace period ends.

Currently, there are two known issues with the HMRC system affecting reconfirmations

  1. Parent successfully reconfirmed but the HMRC system did not record this properly so this means the early years portal was not notified of the result.
  2. Please ask the parent to log into their childcare account again and see if they can reconfirm again – this should hopefully trigger the result to be notified.
  3. If the parent does not have the option to reconfirm ensure they can access the message saying they have successfully reconfirmed and we have been assured these should beresolved in the next week or so and should filter through to the early years portal.
  1. Some parents made a mistake in their original application which they have tried to correct at reconfirmation;this has resulted in a duplicate application for the same child.These parents have been unable to reconfirm.This is affecting a small percentage of parents.
  2. HMRC will delete these childcare accounts from the system. HMRC will then contact these affected parents directly, asking them to re-apply through the childcare service. This means the parent will then receive a new childcare account and a new 30 hours eligibility code. If a parent gives you a new code please email the details to and we will amend this in the system.

Any children with a code starting with 114 should be issued with a code starting with 500 when they re-apply. If you receive a 500 code for a child who already has a 114 code then please email and we will amend this in the system.