Gov childcare account not topped up 20%

[jelllycats]

DS goes to childminder once a week, she sends a monthly invoice and then I pay her via gov childcare account as it tops up the 20%. It's always done this instantly. This month I transferred the money from my bank into the gov childcare account but it has not been topped up. I payed in £190 and they haven't added the extra. I haven't had this issue before so a bit confused and concerned. I can't seem to find a contact number for a help line about this. Does anyone know why this could be and how I can sort it?

Have you exceeded the £500 top ups in 3 months?

For me it doesn't work out to the full year and I have to top up the last two months myself. Are you nearly at a year with it?

No, we pay £152 for a 4 week month and £190 for a 5 week month so definitely haven't exceeded the £500 top up.

We've only been using it for the past few months since I've been back to work so not near the full year yet.

How long has it been since you transferred the money? It usually takes a couple of days for mine to top up.

It shiuld say somewhere
In the app how much you gave left to be topped up of the £500.

I transferred it yesterday morning, the money I transferred is showing up in my childcare account but not the top up which is usually done instantly/automatically.

Have you done the confirmation you have to do every 3 months?

Have you done your 3 monthly re confirmation of eligibility?

The top up sometimes takes a few days.

Oh crap no I haven't, wasn't aware of this until I just looked it up! That's what it will be. I've done it now but does that mean the money I've already transferred in won't be topped up still as I done it before I reconfirmed my details?

I suspect so.

But you can withdraw the money you've already put in. Then deposit again and the top up should be applied.

You’ll have to wait until your re confirmation has been accepted and then transfer the money again (if your childcare provider can wait).

Your childcare sounds very good value OP I am jealous!

Thanks for the tip will withdraw and transfer it again. Should I get an email when the details have been confirmed?

We are quite lucky in that childcare seems to be cheaper here in the north east than other parts of the country, I pay £4.75 an hour for our childminder who is lovely and this seems to be the average rate around here.

I once had this problem for about 10 months. It took hours and hours of phonecalls and escalations to get sorted. In the end I just had to pay the full amount and claim the 20 percent back through the compensation scheme.

You should get an email or text telling you to login to view your messages. But everytime we've reconfirmed it's been pretty much instant. Login and 2 or 3 down there's you can click to view messages to check.

@jelllycats yep you should get a message confirming through the gov account. You’ll get a reminder in the same place the next time you need to do it too, so make sure you log in occasionally even if you’ve got everything set up automatically.

Thats very good! I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that ours is 50% more than that in the SE 🙃