Nursery changed terms - expecting full fees

[anotherdayanothername20]

Hi, our nursery changed their Terms at the start of March to say that if they had a closure due to Statutory Reasons (Government directed) we would still pay full fees....
What are people's opinions? And is this legal? We obviously don't want them to go out of business but also we can't afford to pay full fees and work full time either and look after children full time. None of it is adding up.

Ours said everyone pays in full until they reopen, lots of people said they would give 30 days notice and take their kids out and then they changed their mind we're now paying half price for one month then start paying again when they reopen. I think they will shortly announce support for people whose jobs are at risk, if they can see income from there then they may ease up. Ultimately I am still getting full pay so I don't begrudge paying something, the carers do a great job I wouldn't want and I doubt they are able to save much, I do begrudge being told we're expected to pay it all and keep the private equity company owner's returns up.

A contract needs to be agreed on by both parties. They can't unilaterally change conditions unless it was already a part of the contract that they could (and even then, it may not be enforcable).

There are a lot of things to balance in terms of deciding whether or not you want to support the nursery by continuing to pay fees. If you don't you may not have a nursery when all this is over and, even if they survive, they may well not want to take you back as a client. But you aren't legally obliged to be the one who loses out in this crisis. It's not any more unreasonable for the nursery to go in to debt/bankrupt than it is for you to go into debt/bankrupt. In fact, generally speaking, businesses are expected to take the brunt of risk, not consumers.