Parents who are in full-time higher education may be eligible for a Childcare Grant: this will cover 85% of the weekly childcare costs, up to a cap. You'll will need to select Credit/Debit card as the payment type once the contract has been set up, and this is how you'll be invoiced for the remainder of the care costs.
How much does the grant cover?
The grant covers 85% of weekly childcare costs, up to a cap:
For the 2026 to 2027 academic year, the grant covers
up to £199.62 a week for 1 child
up to £342.24 a week for 2 or more children
How does my childminder get paid?
You'll need to link your children to your childminder via your Student Finance portal, using a CCG Reference Number that will be provided by tiney. Payments cannot be claimed until this has been done.
The Student Finance Childcare Grant works weekly in arrears: this means that tiney will send a claim request via the Student Finance portal each week for care provided the previous week. This request will include the number of days of care, and the total costs, and a separate request will be sent for each child.
You'll need to approve this request in order for payment to be released to tiney, who will then process it and pass payment to the childminder. Requests are usually sent each Monday.
What about the costs not covered?
The remainder of the weekly costs will be invoiced separately by tiney. You should select Credit/Debit Card as your payment method on your tiney app when you're setting up your account, and this is how you'll be invoiced for your part of the costs.
Once you sign your childcare contract, you'll be invoiced for the first two weeks of your part of the costs. After that, invoices will be weekly in arrears, in line with the payments from Student Finance.