CHILDCARE GRANT! SEEMS UNSPENDABLE??

[Gremlo]

Hello please can anyone help? My partner just started uni in september and we have been allocated childcare grant, my son is already in school and his school says they don’t accept it, I have a baby who is also starting nursery and all the nurseries we have found have all said they do NOT accept it either! They all seem to confuse it with the 15/30 hours fund and it seems no one has ever heard of it!!
It is such a shame we have it and can’t spend it.
Has anyone been in this situation before?
Thanks in advance

[itsaboojum]

Childcare providers often refuse this sort of third party payment for various reasons.

It can involve unnecessary extra admin for the provider. Often, the funding party will only pay in arrears, and then only pay for actual attendance, so the nursery doesn’t get paid if the child is off sick or doesn’t turn up for some reason. There are cases of them trying to wriggle out of paying altogether which has resulted in childcare providers getting ripped off.

The only way a childcare provider can protect themselves is to insist the university finance department sign the contract, and universities are strangely reluctant to make that commitment.

[Gremlo]

Thanks This is not being paid by the uni it is a grant the monies are already there when we log in.

[nannynick]

"Your childcare provider will send requests for payment to the CCGPS, which you can approve through your account. Your provider will be paid directly from the money in your account.
Any money that’s left over at the end of the academic year will be returned to Student Finance England." - From GovUk

That I expect is the problem. It's more work for the childcare provider, yet another system to use. Providers do not have to accept all these different payment methods, they create too much admin. Maybe Student Finance England should integrate their system with Tax-Free Childcare so it makes the parent responsible for sending the payment to the provider, not the provider requesting a payment.

[kevintheorangecarrot]

That's strange. I never had this issue when I received childcare grant from uni.

The way it works is: the childcare grant gets paid to you. You pay the nursery/childcare provider out of said money. All you have to do is get them to fill out a childcare grant form every term to confirm that your child has attended to/from dates (as form of proof). Then send that back to SFE.

Have you considered going to a childminder instead?

[jannier]

I'm a childminder I take it, never been an issue

[Hsldl]

I know this is a bit late, but we've had issues with this new form of payment, started last year and it was different then. We're with a childminder who does accept it, it seems nurseries are being difficult about it
@kevintheorangecarrot the system is different now, the provider has to sign up to an online portal, give the hours, you have to sign off on it, they get paid and then you have to pay them the excess. Its a huge faff and took me 3 months to get approved for the payments, during which time I had to take out loans to pay for childcare

[Gremlo]

It is indeed tedious and how unreasonable they pay some We pay some why not just pay what they can without us working each month what we owe the nursery which is different for each month.