Nursery fees during shutdown

[Random63638]

Please can you share what you have been asked to pay so I know if AIBU?

I'm a self employed trainer in a specialist industry, no-one can commit to using me now and all my work is cancelled. I have savings to get by for now, but just barely. No support announced by government as yet for self employed.

Nursery for DD want 50% fees during shutdown. DD is 2 so no free hours. I thought they were getting 80% of staff salary paid, no business rates and VAT holiday? What am I paying for?! Is there any guarantees they will reopen? What if this goes in longer and they walk away?

I can't afford it, I have no income. What can I do?

Our nursery has emailed today to say they won't be charging fees from today and as we have already paid for March we will have the fees we have paid as credit in our account.

We had decided if they were still going to charge, we would withdraw DD and try and re enrol after this is over. I am on mat leave until 2021 though so the risk of not getting a place is not as worrying as it might be for others.

We were told on Friday that we won't be charged whilst nursery is closed. However they can't afford to refund us for March's fees already paid, which I think is fine

We have been told we don’t have to pay and will be refunded the last week of March

I'd really love to know how the fees range from full to zero plus refunds! The luck of the draw? Are some school based so don't have to pay rent etc?

Mine isn't school based, they're a fully private nursery for babies through to 5 year olds. They didn't have much choice about charging or not, it's written in our contract that they won't. They haven't chosen to ask for voluntary contributions either though...

Ours contractually can request payment for the first month of the setting being shut and nothing after that.

I suspect when they reopen there will be new contracts sent out. DS1 will hopefully be starting school in September so we should miss a fee increase which would be inevitable.

Why should you pay to keep a business open if that then causes you to go bankrupt? You need to feed, clothe and house you and your daughter.

You need to tell them that as a self-employed worker you have no income to pay them and that they contractually cannot charge when they are not providing you with a service.

The nursery my DD works in is charging 20% fees and paying staff 80% wages.
Not too bad I think

Our nursery has offered my son a place as my husband is military so he ‘qualifies’ for a space. I said I didn’t need it as I’m not at work and because I’m the one that declined the space I’m still liable for the fees :(

I wouldn’t pay the fees , they’ll be happy to take her back when things go back to normal or you can always find something else .
They’re not supplying a service so why would you pay .

No refund for the rest of March, but we don't need to pay from April.

DD's private nursery emailed to say no fees payable at all and they will refund any payments made for this week. Worries me that they already know there won't be any nursery to go back too

We have paid up until the end of the term, and the nursery manager said she would ask for 50% of fees if the government funding didn't cover her outgoings. She did say she wishes she didn't have to, but without parent's paying at least that, there's unlikely to be a nursery to go back to when all of this is over.

YABU and ignorant. If you can’t afford to pay, pull her out

Don't be so bloody rude!

Nurseries have a cheek asking parents to pay when they are not providing a service.

OP - what does your contract say?

what does your contract say? - well here's thing, I don't appear to have one! I've looked everywhere and can't find it, and can't remember actually signing one. Wondering if there's such a thing as an implied agreement as they look after DD and I pay each month?

Same here heeblejeeble

My nursery have waived all fees for April (for those not attending). They plan to use the 80% government grant to pay staff wages and they pay other 20% themselves. The nursery is still open to keyworkers but the team is reduced now. The children still attending need to pay full fees and that will pay the small team who are still working or a large portion of it (as they wouldnt be entitled to the 80% grant).

Apparently despite nursery saying April is waived some parents have have still willingly paid in full or happily paid a percentage to support the nursery

Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm hoping that the government announce some support for the self employed soon. I also feel like there should be conditions on the grants being offered so nursery owners don't take advantage.

At first our nursery said they would charge full fees- I was ok to pay as I’m lucky enough to
Be getting paid- fully appreciate that I am fortunate. However enough people kicked up a fuss, combined with the government support + them having c. 15 key worker children - they then emailed to say they won’t charge.

I would say though had my child been old enough to start school I would have pulled them out had they charged- could pay 4 months for 1 month before school.

Oh and I checked the contract, all it said was they will be open for 51 weeks of the year. I’m surprised if many contracts would have such a pandemic clause....bet they will going forward

Have you actually spoken to them or emailed them to explain your situation? It may well be they can afford to be flexible with a few parents but not everybody in order to survive financially. What their attitude is towards it isn't something we can answer. They may also agree deferral of fees. If they say no then look at your other options as to whether to withdraw your child rather than it being the first decision made.

Mine has finally made some concession and asked us to continue paying full fees and has said they will give us some sort of refund if they get it from the government. Pretty sure we won't get much back as they'll deduct every lost cost I would expect including losses from parents not continuing to pay. Also if the business folds we're the ones taking the risk. On that basis I think I will pay this month to cover staff but will cancel nursery until September. If they say they won't hold our place it will be frustrating as my daughters age 3 funding starts then and I obviously can't get it sorted with another nursery at the moment as they're all closed! But they clearly don't have other children booked into those spaces right now and am not going to be held over a barrel by a business (whose response to this whole thing has been verging on immoral ... but that's another story 😂).

Just thinking out loud...

I've seen so many of these threads. Are there any other businesses offering no service (understandably of course) but still expecting at least partial if not full payment? Because I'm not seeing it about any other business although perhaps there aren't any comparable examples.

I'm genuinely wondering if nursery owners are exempt or something?

Our serviced offices are providing no services, but still expecting full payment.

Private school have given out a few worksheets but nothing else til after easter. Full payment.

Premises landlord, building shut, still full payment. Seems to be commom that a lot of commercial landlords are not budging.

There aren't that many comparables though, the big problem for childcare is if they have to make staff redundant. The announcements about closures were pretty short notice and I'd expect the reopenings to be similar - but if they have to recruit they won't be able to open at full capacity and there will be a huge backlog of pvg/ctn checks, getting references will be a nightmare...

50% which we're happy to pay as we're not affected financially at this time and need the business to survive so we can use it once this ends. But in your situation I wouldn't pay anything other than you 30 days notice, you have no income!

I will review my fees though next month as the nursery is now fully closed and I was really surprised some of my friends are refusing to pay anything to their nurseries, or negotiating smaller contributions, despite still receiving their full wage.

We want to do the right thing but don't want to pay if nobody else is, especially if there is a risk they go bust if this goes on for months, then we've paid for nothing.. . .

Hi OP, ours initially also wanted half (which we agreed to as we're still being paid).
Since the 80% scheme has come in they have now waived all fees (I think the children actually attending will fund the few staff who continue to work, and the govt scheme will subsidize the other staff who are now off).
I feel for you and the nursery, there are no winners in this exceptional situation. In your shoes I'd explain it to them, and if no workaround take mine out. Of course everyone wants to fully support their nursery in principle but nobody can be reasonably expected to continue to pay a big nursery bill while their own income has been wiped out.