Tax free childcare

[vahid-ahmadi]

Overview

This PR implements the Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme calculation in PolicyEngine UK. The scheme provides government contributions towards childcare costs for eligible families. (Documentation link)

Key Features

• Annual contribution of up to £2,000 per standard child and £4,000 per disabled child
• Income threshold of £100,000 per partner
• Eligible unit: person
• Needs to be combined with: Add extended childcare entitlement #1006 Add universal childcare entitlement #1009 Add targeted childcare entitlement #1014

Fixes #1002

[MaxGhenis]

@PavelMakarchuk could you please meet with @vahid-ahmadi on this? Probably easier than text review for getting the parameters and vectorization in for the first time.

[PavelMakarchuk]

Come initial comments but will meet to discuss in detail

[MaxGhenis]

I'm also still not clear on how this works wrt spouse income eligibility, can you check against another source like entitled to?

Also run make format

[MaxGhenis]

Please also add the benefit to the list of benefits so it flows to net income

[vahid-ahmadi]

I'm also still not clear on how this works wrt spouse income eligibility, can you check against another source like entitled to?

Also run make format

Program rules:

• "You must include your partner in your application if you are married/civil partnership and live together, or living together as though you are"
• Both partners must independently meet income requirements when in a couple

The code addresses this through:

• benunit.all(benunit.members("tax_free_childcare_meets_income_requirements", period)) in tax_free_childcare_eligible - ensures both partners must independently satisfy income conditions
• tax_free_childcare_work_condition handles couple-specific work requirements with couple_both_working | couple_one_working_one_disabled

The code correctly implements the partner eligibility rules from the program description. I will explain the code in the documentation in detail.

[MaxGhenis]

Also run make format for the linecheck

Makes sense on the spousal earnings, it was ambiguous when we had earnings rather than hours (the guide said "you must earn at least x [based on age] and so must your spouse" which could have meant your spouse's earnings requirement also depended on your age) but is now more clear given the minimum wage standard