To refuse to pay this nursery charge

X is an unknown excuse. You don’t need the specifics when you can surely imagine something… it was raining on the planned day (but it didn’t rain), there weren’t enough children booked in (but nursery was full), the court/pool/forest school was closed (but it was open). Not hard to imagine without needing exact details.

All the other things about lack of government funding etc (whilst true) are irrelevant in this case.

How are they irrelevant, though? IF a nursery is basically forced to make up an excuse to charge for the extra funding that plugs the gap, whilst not being allowed to explicitly state the truth, how else do they go about it?

Have the other parents not complained because they haven't noticed, don't want to rock the boat or have understood the tacit reality?

In that case. You are not being unreasonable in the slightests. I'd find a different nursery, but I know it's difficult for your children having that change.

Personally, if this is a nursery you're otherwise happy with, I'd call this £40 the cost of keeping you cool, calm and collected. At the end of the day, the nursery years are mercifully short.

To me, it doesn't seem unreasonable to be charged in the bill for December, for an activity that will take place in December.

I think you should look for another nursery, I would not be happy leaving my children with a manager who is aggressive, who charges for activities that did not happen. What else would they be prepared to lie about?

Yep I said this earlier

wait to see if do the activity x the amount paid by April

X=???

Her explanation was clear as glass… people are just acting thick and can’t seem to understand OP when she says things in a really obvious way because it’s not how their nursery bills them.

Honestly it’s been baffling to read the replies and I’d have been a lot more ‘abrasive’ than OP has been.

She’s paid in November for November. There’s an added charge for an activity on her November bill. They have not done the activity. She has been told they will do it in December but will be billed the amount for the activity again on her December bill. As it is November she likely doesn’t know if they will do the activity in March and not be billed for it as she doesn’t have those bills yet. The manager has said they didn’t do the activity, that was paid for, because of x… but x is a lie so OP is annoyed.

My thoughts as well.

So the activity is running for 5 months dec-apr. But they’ve charged you in nov, so the nursery should not charge you in April as by then you will already have paid the 5 payments due. If this happens then this is annoying but not unreasonable. If the nursery still expect you to pay in April then yes this would be unreasonable.

I work in a nursery and don’t believe this is fair. In your shoes I would get a few other parents behind you and complain about getting a refund. Make sure you email them so it’s in writing. They can’t charge you for an activity that hasn’t taken place. All the other things about lack of government funding etc (whilst true) are irrelevant in this case. At our nursery the parents are on a group WhatsApp chat. I would maybe post on there to make the other parents aware and go from there. You shouldn’t be paying for something that hasn’t taken place. It’s very cheeky of them to charge you in the first place.

If you want to play hardball with them then gather as many parents as you can to work together who:

1 Don’t pay the £40 next month.
2 Collectively send a single email explaining you are £40 in credit for the Nov activity that didn’t take place so haven’t paid the £40 this month. “If our understanding of the situation is incorrect, please advise”

Relations may sour with the nursery in which case you all have two options:
A) Suck it up and pay up - your action above may be enough to ensure it never happens again or
B) A second collective email or meeting saying you are unhappy at the turn of events and hint / say outright that other parents in the community should know before choosing the nursery that this is how they operate but you would like to resolve it before it becomes a big public issue. (If parents are asked to remove their children I would get the local press involved but you will need to ensure you can demonstrate that the nursery being opaque and underhand is the issue rather than parents being difficult.)

Whilst I do understand this is annoying you, I do also think it would be more helpful to have been given the full picture for people to accurately assess the situation.

A load of word salad means nothing. What actually was said to you as to why you would not be getting the November refund?

What is the activity that you pay for? Are you absolutely sure there is no cost to them if it is cancelled. This is quite key.

Are you also quite sure that an additional future month of this activity will not be tagged onto the end of term for which there will be no charge - hence an even balance?

Honestly you haven't explained this well at all.

But to answer you original question, for the sake of £40 if you are happy with the nursery you will just have to let it go. But I'm making that comment rather in the dark as you haven't actually supplied all the necessary information.,

There seems to be quite a bit of confusion.

Do you communicate like this in real life? If so perhaps this could be the source of your original problem . Or let me guess, it’s ALL of us and your nursery that have the communication problem?

Either it's a scam or - much more likely imho - it's a 'read between the lines' scenario whereby their books don't balance otherwise, because of the below-cost payments that the government give them for 'free' nursery places.

Maybe start by answering the question?

I agree with PP, way upthread, that this may well be their way of balancing the books to counteract the below-cost payments that they receive from the government for 'free' spaces.

If they levied it on things like nappies, parents would just say they'll send in their own or they have children that are toilet trained etc.; but if it's for 'an activity', they can't do that.

They could be scared at getting into trouble for offering free places that turn out not to be free, so maybe they're hoping that parents will understand that the 'activity' - that likely doesn't really cost an extra £40 a month anyway - is an excuse for them to charge a top-up to make ends meet. They might give the name of a nice, normal-sounding activity, but the reality is that the 'activity' is paying the winter heating bill (at even higher commercial rates) to keep the place open.

They should probably work on their delivery of the message, so that everybody is on the same page; but as OP is clearly 'assertive' - they could be seriously worried that she will report them if they spell it out what the actual money is really to pay for and leave them and their business right in the crap.

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To clarify - it is added to the Nov bill that you paid either at the start of Nov/end of October, so the yoga is effectively being charged TWO months in advance?

As she has shut you down, I would monitor how many months of yoga your children actually do (ie is it 3?) and make sure that you are charged 3x for it. If it turns out that you have a 4th charge in Feb, you write to senior management. ie. Park it for now, but monitor it?

And yes, agreed with PP that I've never heard of a nursery charging extra £40pcm for additional activities - what kind of activities for young childre cost this much and what do they need as an extra in the winter and for several months after? Don't they offer sufficient activities as part of their standard care? Is this a compulsory activity and payment on top of your bill? Do they involve third parties, take them out, what is the activity that costs extra? It's rather unusual for such young children.

It's slightly patronizing to suggest that the OP doesn't understand how her nursery, that she's been using for at least a year, charges especially as it was clear from the start that the activity hadn't taken place and the person she spoke to accepted that it hadn't

It isn't people's comprehension skills that are the problem it is your inability to write coherently that is the issue.

If you communicate as appallingly IRL as you do on this thread, I am not surprised the manager doesn't like you. I wouldn't either.

Perhaps worth clarifying with the nursery whether the earlier charge was, for example, because they've been asked to put a deposit down for the activity in advance, and maybe there will be no charge for the final month or a refund at a later date. I'm assuming with your phenomenal communication skills you have gone down the route of politely clarifying this first with the manager, of course, and you haven't jumped to conclusion that they charged you for nothing. If you checked this and the nursery has in fact overcharged with no valid reason then it's reasonable to ask for a refund for this activity for November.

Why and how on earth are they getting away with charging every parent £40 a month for an activity that involves no extra resources or staffing?!!