Is the £100k cliff edge costing your family?

Earn £1 over £100,000 and your family can lose its funded nursery hours and Tax-Free Childcare. Put in your numbers to see what you lose, and what a pension top-up would cost to get it back.

Your numbers

Filled in with an example. Replace with your own.

You

Expected income this tax year (salary, bonus, other taxable income)

Pension you already pay in (your own contributions, per year)

How your pension contributions are taken

Partner I have a partner

Their expected income

Their pension contributions

How theirs are taken

Children in paid childcare

Your nursery's hourly rate (check an invoice)

Funded hours are valued at this rate: 30 hours a week for 38 weeks is 1,140 hours a year.

Support you're missing£0

Take-home cost of the top-up£0

Cash better off per year£0

Added to pensions£0

The working

Your take-home pay plus childcare support, as your income changes

As things standTopping up your pension to stay at £100,000

General information, not financial advice. This is a simplified model for employed income in England, Wales and Northern Ireland using 2026/27 rates. Scottish income tax differs, and funded hours are England-only. Everyone's situation is different — speak to a regulated financial adviser before changing your pension.

Figures: personal allowance £12,570 tapered above £100,000; tax 20/40/45%; employee NI 8%/2%; Tax-Free Childcare 20% up to £2,000 per child (£4,000 if disabled); 30 funded hours for 38 weeks from 9 months; minimum earnings 16 hours at £12.71.

The worked example

The £100k childcare trap: why a £10,000 pension payment can leave you £7,120 better off

Earn just over £100,000 with a child in nursery and one extra pound can cost your family £11,120 of childcare support. A pension payment can bring it back for a fraction of the price.

Read the worked example