Edinburgh self-employed parent — toddler and a part-time partner

The household

Mhairi and Callum — Fictional household. No real people or full addresses.

Mhairi works for herself as an illustrator in Leith, Edinburgh. She expects £36,400 profit this tax year and pays Class 2 / Class 4 National Insurance. Callum works 20 hours in a shop on £18,200. Their daughter Isla was born on 2 April 2024. On 14 August 2026 she is 2 years 4 months and attends a registered nursery at £140 a week.

They have not claimed Child Benefit or opened Tax-Free Childcare. Self-employed parents can still use Tax-Free Childcare if they expect to earn at least the working-parent minimum over the coming quarter — or they can use an average over the tax year when income is lumpy. Both adults are above the contract 21+ floor of £10,574.72.

Scotland does not use the England 30 hours scheme in the tax-year file. Funded early learning and childcare, Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Grant are devolved. A7 has not landed rates. Scottish Child Payment also usually needs a qualifying low-income benefit; a household at these earnings is unlikely to qualify, so we do not put a made-up Scottish pound in the headline.

Worked pounds

Source: contracts/tax-year-2026-27.json (checkedOn 2026-08-14). 52 weeks a year; nearest pound (Math.round).

What this example is for

• Self-employed parents can use Tax-Free Childcare. Lumpy invoices are averaged; you still reconfirm every 3 months.
• Do not apply England's 30 hours offer to a Scottish postcode.
• Sure Start Maternity Grant is an England / Wales / Northern Ireland payment. In Scotland the equivalent is a Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment — and Isla's age is outside that window anyway.

What stacks

Recommended combination: child_benefit + tax_free_childcare

• Claim Child Benefit. There is no HICBC on these incomes.
• Open Tax-Free Childcare using expected or averaged self-employed earnings.
• Do not use an England 30 hours code on an Edinburgh nursery place.
• Check mygov.scot for funded ELC and Best Start — A7 will attach rates later.

Conflict: tax_free_childcare and uc_childcare — Official rules treat Tax-Free Childcare and the Universal Credit childcare element as mutually exclusive.

What they would do next

1. Claim Child Benefit

   Apply online through HMRC. Self-employment does not stop the claim. Keep records if your profit later approaches the HICBC threshold.

   Claim within 3 months of the birth (or of the child coming to live with you) if you want payments backdated.

2. Open a Tax-Free Childcare account

   The government adds £2 for every £8 you pay in, up to £500 a quarter, if the nursery is signed up. Reconfirm every 3 months. If a quarter is thin, GOV.UK lets self-employed parents use a tax-year average.

   Apply in time for the quarter you will pay the nursery.

3. Check Scottish funded hours and family payments on mygov.scot

   This site does not yet store Scottish rates (A7). Look up funded early learning and childcare, Scottish Child Payment and Best Start on the official Scottish sites before you assume a figure.

FamilyProfile JSON

This is the calculator input for the household. Field names match contracts/family-profile.schema.json.

{
  "schemaVersion": "1.0.0",
  "country": "scotland",
  "taxYear": "2026-27",
  "adults": [
    {
      "id": "edinburgh-parent",
      "role": "parent",
      "employment": "self_employed",
      "grossAnnualIncomeGbp": 36400,
      "weeklyHours": 35,
      "nationalInsuranceEligible": true
    },
    {
      "id": "edinburgh-partner",
      "role": "partner",
      "employment": "employed",
      "grossAnnualIncomeGbp": 18200,
      "weeklyHours": 20,
      "nationalInsuranceEligible": true
    }
  ],
  "children": [
    {
      "id": "edinburgh-child-1",
      "dateOfBirth": "2024-04-02",
      "isEldest": true,
      "disabled": false,
      "inPaidChildcare": true,
      "weeklyChildcareCostGbp": 140
    }
  ],
  "alreadyClaiming": [],
  "housing": {
    "postcode": "EH6",
    "localAuthority": "City of Edinburgh"
  },
  "flags": {
    "noRecourseToPublicFunds": false,
    "adopting": false,
    "caringForDisabledChild": false
  }
}

GOV.UK check on 2026-08-14

Case pages must not invent rates. Where the live page and the tax-year file disagree, the file still wins for the arithmetic — A9 needs to reconcile.

• matchChild Benefit weekly rates. Contract: £27.05 eldest Live: GOV.UK listed £27.05 on 2026-08-14
• matchTax-Free Childcare. Contract: 20%, £500 a quarter, £100,000 cap Live: GOV.UK /tax-free-childcare matches; self-employed averaging is described on the eligibility pages
• matchEngland 30 hours in Scotland. Contract: England-only object freeChildcareHoursEngland Live: Correct to exclude it for country: scotland
• matchSure Start Maternity Grant in Scotland. Contract: £500; notes say Scotland cannot claim and should use Pregnancy and Baby Payment Live: GOV.UK /sure-start-maternity-grant says the same
• not in contractScottish Child Payment / Best Start. Contract: no devolved rates Live: mygov.scot publishes current Scottish family payments; A7 must ingest them before cases can count them