Your family’s income
See what going over £100,000 costs your family in childcare help, Child Benefit and tax, and how much paying into a pension wins back.
Childcare, Child Benefit and tax figures current for 2026/27, last checked against GOV.UK.
Results update as you type
Your results
The £100,000 test uses adjusted net income: income less pension contributions. Paying more into a pension lowers it pound for pound, and the tax relief means each £1 paid in costs much less than £1.
The 15 hours every 3 and 4 year old gets (£3,762 a year here) stay whatever your income.
Your family’s money as your salary changes
Going from £105,000 to £106,000 of salary leaves your family £13,145 a year worse off after tax and childcare. Paying into a pension to stay at £100,000 keeps the line rising.
Your household, now and with £4,500 more into pensions
| A year | Now | With the top-up |
|---|---|---|
| Salaries | £155,000 | £155,000 |
| Paid into pensions (with tax relief) | £7,750 | £12,250 |
| Your adjusted net income | £104,500 | £100,000 |
| Your partner’s adjusted net income | £42,750 | £42,750 |
| Income Tax and National Insurance | −£42,863 | −£40,073 |
| Take-home pay | £104,387 | £102,677 |
| Child Benefit, after the charge | £0 | £0 |
| Childcare bills, before help | −£26,400 | −£26,400 |
| Universal funded hours (3 and 4 year olds) | £3,762 | £3,762 |
| Working-parent funded hours | £0 | £11,286 |
| Tax-Free Childcare | £0 | £2,270 |
| Left after tax and childcare | £81,749 | £93,595 |
The top-up goes in the same way as each pension (relief at source if there’s no workplace scheme). Your family has £11,846 a year more to spend, and £4,500 more goes into pensions.
Using this calculator
Enter both parents’ salaries and pensions, your children’s ages and what childcare costs before any help. The calculator shows whether either of you is over £100,000 for the childcare test, what that costs your family, and how much more pension would bring you back under.
- The test uses adjusted net income: your income less pension contributions made through salary sacrifice, net pay, or relief at source (grossed up). Either parent over £100,000 ends Tax-Free Childcare and the working-parent funded hours for the whole family.
- Funded hours are worth what the nursery would otherwise charge for them, so set the nursery’s hourly price under “Nursery price and other income”.
- In Wales the childcare offer is tested on gross income, before pension contributions, so paying into a pension won’t bring it back there.
For how the £100,000 cliff works, with worked examples, read the £100,000 childcare trap.
Where the figures come from
Every rate and rule checked against GOV.UK in October 2026.
- GOV.UK: Tax-Free Childcare: £2 for every £8 you pay, up to £2,000 a year per child, and who’s eligible: neither parent’s adjusted net income over £100,000, each earning at least £2,643.68 over 3 months.
- GOV.UK: 30 hours free childcare for working parents in England, from 9 months old, 38 weeks a year; 15 hours for every 3 and 4 year old, whatever the income.
- GOV.WALES: 30 hours childcare, eligibility: each parent’s gross income £100,000 or less. GOV.SCOT: early learning and childcare: 1,140 hours for all 3 and 4 year olds.
- GOV.UK: High Income Child Benefit Charge: 1% for every £200 over £60,000; and Child Benefit rates, £27.05 and £17.90 a week.
- GOV.UK: Adjusted net income: how pension contributions reduce it; Income Tax rates and the Personal Allowance taper above £100,000.