< Back to our blog
We’re pleased to announce that AS Music School now accepts Tax-Free Childcare payments, as well as Edenred and Computershare childcare vouchers. If you have money sitting in a childcare account that you’re no longer using, this is a very good time to read on.    

“My child left nursery — what can I spend my Tax-Free Childcare money on?”

This is one of the most common questions parents ask us, and the answer surprises a lot of people. Tax-Free Childcare doesn’t stop when your child starts school. Your account stays open and usable until the September after your child’s 11th birthday. Many families pay in throughout the nursery years, move on to primary school, and then leave a healthy balance sitting untouched — often several hundred pounds, including the government’s 20% top-up. That money doesn’t have to sit there. It can be spent with any Ofsted-registered provider, and that includes registered activities and lessons like ours. In other words: the leftover money in your childcare account can pay for your child’s music lessons.    

What can you use it for at AS Music School?

  • Individual instrument lessons — piano, guitar, violin, drums, singing and more
  • Stave House early years music sessions for our youngest musicians
  • Baby and toddler music groups
  • Play in a Band group sessions
  • Musical Theatre groups
If your child is eligible for the scheme, the lessons are eligible too.    

Do childcare vouchers expire?

No — and this catches a lot of people out. The employer childcare voucher schemes closed to new joiners in October 2018, but if you were already signed up you can keep using them, and unspent vouchers don’t expire. Plenty of parents have a forgotten balance from years ago still sitting in an Edenred or Computershare account.    

Who’s eligible for Tax-Free Childcare?

In short, you can usually use the scheme if your child is 11 or under (16 or under if they have a disability), you and your partner are each working and earning at least the equivalent of 16 hours a week at minimum wage, neither of you earns over £100,000 a year, and you’re not also claiming Universal Credit or childcare vouchers at the same time. For every £8 you pay in, the government adds £2 — up to £500 every three months. That’s an effective 20% discount on your child’s music lessons. You can check your eligibility at gov.uk/tax-free-childcare.    

A situation we see often

A parent gets in touch because their five-year-old wants to start piano. In conversation, it turns out they’ve had a Tax-Free Childcare account since their child was a baby, stopped topping it up when nursery ended, and have a few hundred pounds sitting in it doing nothing. That balance covers a full term of lessons — sometimes two. If that sounds like you, it’s worth logging in and checking your balance.    

How to pay us

Log in to your childcare account or voucher provider, search for AS Music School, and use your child’s name as the payment reference. Payments usually reach us within one working day and we’ll credit them against your next invoice. If you can’t find us on the system, or you’d like our registration and provider reference numbers, just email info@asmusicschool.com and we’ll send them straight over.    

Music lessons in Sheffield

We’re based on Cobnar Road in Sheffield and teach students of all ages, from babies in our early years sessions right through to adult learners. If you’d like to book a lesson and pay using Tax-Free Childcare, Edenred or Computershare vouchers, email info@asmusicschool.com — we’re happy to talk through how the payment side works before you commit to anything.