"The primary aims of the Actual Costs pilot focus not on take-up as with the 100% and the Disabled Children pilots, but more on the experiences and behaviour of families under the piloted system of reporting and payment.
The Actual Costs pilot looks at whether an alternative process whereby families do not have to average, and can claim a proportion of their actual last month’s childcare costs, helps families to budget better, and results in a lower level of error and fraud overall.
There is no enhancement of benefits in this pilot, rather families are offered the opportunity to budget for their costs better with more frequent contact. The aims of this report are to assess whether the CAP09 Actual Costs pilot resulted in a reported improvement in families’ ability to know which costs to report to HMRC, and to do so more accurately." - https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DFE-RR10
