MILLIONS of households will need to act within hours to ensure they don’t miss out on £1,000s.
Thousands of working parents should apply for free childcare before the end of today.
Households will need to act before midnight to ensure they don’t miss out on £1,000s
Other families will need to renew their claims for child benefit if their child has recently reached the age of 16.
Big bank Halifax is ending its free cash perk which pays new current account holders up to £225 just for switching.
While millions of Tesco Clubcard customers have just hours left to redeem their points before they expire at midnight.
Here’s everything you need to know as well as the action you need to take to ensure that you don’t miss out.
30 hours free childcare
Thousands of parents have hours left to apply for 30 hours of free childcare.
Families need to make a claim before the end of August if they want to start receiving the benefit for the Autumn term.
In a series of recent posts on X, formerly Twitter, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said thousands of parents who are currently eligible aren’t claiming.
He urged eligible them to make a claim before the end of August if they want to start receiving the benefit from September.
He said: “It’s really important if you want to take advantage of our existing 30 hours offer for three and four-year-olds.
“You need to get your application in before the deadline of Thursday, 31st August.”
Thirty hours of free childcare is available to some parents in England with children aged three and four.
It allows you to access 30 hours each week for 38 weeks of the year – during school term time.
But you can get free childcare for 52 weeks of the year if you use less than 30 hours a week.
Typically, to be eligible for 30 hours of free childcare, you must earn a minimum of the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the National Living or Minimum Wage – this works out to be around £167 a week.
You also have to be earning less than £100,000 a year, as two parents combined or a single parent.
You can normally use up your free hours of childcare with nurseries, childminders and pre schools.
However, out of school clubs are also eligible if they are registered on the Early Years Register.
If you live in England, you can apply for 30 hours of free childcare via the Government’s website.
If you live in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, you have to apply via their respective Government websites.
In England, you can apply for 30 hours of free childcare from when your child is two years and 36 weeks old.
You’ll need some details to hand though, including your National Insurance number and your partner’s if you have one.
Child benefit
Most parents in the UK can claim child benefit which can top up their incomes by £1,000s every year.
Child benefit is currently worth £24 a week for the eldest child or only child, adding up to £1,248 a year.
For each subsequent child, parents get £15.90 a week – or £826.80 a year.
But the payments automatically stop on August 31 on or after your child’s 16th birthday if they leave education or training.
But you can continue getting the free cash if you tell the Child Benefit Office that your child is remaining in education or training.
Households are usually sent a letter in their child’s last year at school asking you to confirm their plans.
Education must be full-time (more than an average of 12 hours a week of supervised study or course-related work experience).
These include A levels, T levels and Scottish Highers.
Approved training should be unpaid and can include foundation apprenticeships and traineeships.
Some families can also apply for a child benefit extension when their children’s education or training comes to an end.
You could get child benefit for 20 weeks if your child leaves approved education or training and either:
Households can apply for the extension at Gov.UK or by calling HMRC on 0300 200 3100.
You can find out the full eligibility requirements here.
Halifax switching bonus
Halifax‘s switching bonus ends today meaning newbies have hours left to claim £225 in free cash.
Customers signing up to Halifax’s New Reward or Ultimate Reward current account will receive £150 free.
The money is paid into your account within three working days of completing the switch.
Plus, you can earn £25 in cashback when spending £750 or more on one of the new Halifax debit cards each month.
If you do this for three months, you will receive £75 cashback – when combined with the £150 this adds up to £225 in total.
You can still switch bank accounts after that date, you just won’t get the bonus.
If you’re a Halifax customer or want to look elsewhere for switching offers, then other banks are offering similar bonuses.
Tesco Clubcard
More than £11.5million Clubcard points are set to expire at midnight tonight.
The points, which were first issued in August 2021, have to be redeemed within two years.
Shoppers can exchange Clubcard points for vouchers to spend in-store and online to save money on their Tesco shop.
You’ll need to use the Clubcard points before the end of today.
If you decide to use your points for your Tesco shop, then 150 points gets you £1.50 to spend in shopping vouchers.
You can also swap vouchers for money off your Tesco mobile bill.
Points can even be doubled in value to spend at various reward partners including Pizza Express and Zizzi.
You can also use them on days out and holidays like at Alton Towers and Hotels.com.
Your vouchers can also be used to cut the cost of car fuel, as shoppers collect one point for every two litres of fuel they put into their vehicles.