Nursery won't refund overpayment through tax free childcare..

[Needaholidayplease]

I accidentally overpaid a months fees via tax free childcare account, as my son is moving settings after Xmas. They say they can't refund me because it was through TFC. Is that right? It was my error, of course, but it seems pretty miserly to keep hold of an extra 600 quid of ours just because I hadn't realised we were in credit (they'd taken our deposit off the last bill) help please!

They absolutely should refund!
www.ndna.org.uk/NDNA/Knowledge_Hub/tax_free_childcare_nurseries_early_years.aspx

I had to pull my daughter out of nursery when fleeing domestic abuse, the nursery refunded my deposit and a month's worth of fees via the tfc account. They can definitely issue a refund.

[quote tobypercy]They absolutely should refund!
www.ndna.org.uk/NDNA/Knowledge_Hub/tax_free_childcare_nurseries_early_years.aspx[/quote]
Is that so! I'll push back more if that's the case, they made it sound like it was impossible because of the govt top up

@Refugemummy

I had to pull my daughter out of nursery when fleeing domestic abuse, the nursery refunded my deposit and a month's worth of fees via the tfc account. They can definitely issue a refund.

God what a horrible situation, I'm so glad they refunded you. And good to know it's technically possible!

They can’t refund you directly. It has to go through the tax free account.

The government top up gets added before you pay them so that's a nonsense excuse too!

I've had this. They quite possibly can't refund you - my vouchers were with Edenred and I had to pay the school in advance. Covid happened, my child then left the school, and there is about £300 sitting there. Edenred will not take the vouchers back.
The school can't refund as they were from a childcare voucher scheme, however what they can do is transfer to another provider who takes vouchers. So if your DC is moving to another setting then you could try that? Otherwise I'm afraid you're probably stuck.

They can’t issue it to you directly, but they can refund your account.

Ask for your deposit back of they can't refund vouchers if you paid deposit cash. Not your fault they have done it that way.

Does anyone know if the tax free childcare counts as 'vouchers'?

@Needaholidayplease if you had vouchers you'd know. Tax free childcare is different. They can refund you.

[quote girlmom21]@Needaholidayplease if you had vouchers you'd know. Tax free childcare is different. They can refund you. [/quote]
Thanks, getting a bit confused. Think they're just trying it on a bit, which seems a bit mean considering we paid all the way through the lockdowns when he didn't attend.

They're probably just being dicks because you're leaving

They can't refund directly to you but through the tax free account you pay from. Vouchers are different - can't be refunded as could be money laundering.

As other pps have said, vouchers are different. Childcare vouchers were an old scheme which has been closed to new people for some years. I do still have a balance in my voucher account which I can't spend - but that's another story!

Vouchers not the same thing! They can definitely refund tax free childcare.

They aren't allowed to just give you the money because the tax situation would then be complicated and if you didn't regularise it somehow they would be complicit in tax fraud. There is nothing at all to stop them from transferring the credit to your new childcare provider assuming that the new provider is also registered for the same scheme.

Of course they can (and legally must) refund it as it was paid to them in error and they have no legitimate entitlement to it). They are right I expect in saying they can’t give you the cash back directly as that would include any HMRC top up which obviously has to go back to HMRC so they will have to refund to your childcare account (which I’m sure must be doable).

If practically speaking it’s a challenge to refund to your childcare account they could surely pay on to your new provider?

They just need your reference number and can refund it through the scheme. We accidentally overpaid our old childminder and She had to do it from her bank account with our reference number attached. They are having you on. X

All PPs corrrect that they absolutely can refund the payment to your TFC account.

Or, alternatively, they could accept the TFC payment as your final month's payment as normal and refund the deposit to you directly.

Agree though if they carry on saying no just ask then to return your deposit and use the tfc t pay the balance

They can refund it into your portal but not directly back into your bank account. The funds then sit in your account and can be used for your new provider.