To be disappointed that the free 30 hours for 1-2 year olds won't come in fully until Sept 2025?

[OhwhyOY]

Totally understand the rationale behind needing to delay it a bit to make sure there are sufficient nursery spaces available, to allow for increased government funding to filter through given how financially strapped many childcare providers are atm due to 3-4 year old underfunding, etc. But to delay it coming in for one and a half years feels pretty tough on those who desperately need that support now, and also seems daft when it will potentially offer such a massive economic boost that we also need now. Definitely at least partly selfish disappointment as I have a current two year old who won't benefit at all, but I'm thinking more about all those people who are not in work so the government's primary target, and will still need to be sat at home another year or two. Great long term news though, as long as childcare places are properly funded by the government to avoid a loss of even more nurseries/childminders.

Couldn't agree more. It's totally depressing. Really thought I'd be able to reconsider stopping work but back to it being unaffordable.

Well, I'm quite disappointed he hasn't back dated it to 1995. We can't all be winners!

I think it would be better if they called it discounted childcare rather than free. If the government contribute, say £40 a day for nursery and you usually pay £70 then the nursery should charge the difference to the parents with no explanation needed. It's win win, nurseries receive their normal rate and parents get a heavy discount.

I wish I had not got my hopes up last night. I woke up feeling such relief this morning and it was for nothing. It is a stupid system where your earnings match your outgoings completely.

This is what the BBC article says with regards to the staged implementation:-

As a result, it will be a staged introduction, with 15 free hours of childcare for two-year-olds in April 2024, and in September 2024 for those aged over nine months, then 30 hours for all from September 2025.

Exactly, this budget is a joke and everyone seems happy, wtf!

Wake up Britain, the Torys have you hoodwinked again....

Oh bless you! It isn't going to happen!

I think a lot of people have missed that there isn't going to be any childcare help until 2024.

It's going to create a difficult situation for a lot of childcare providers.

I will only benefit for 4 months . Was a bit gutted but I suppose it’s only a year left of maximum bills.

Well, there is a good portion of Labour mps complaining that the policy was stolen entirely from them. But perhaps they have some magical thinking to square the circle of a necessary but unavailable workforce?

Looks like if people planning a family it’s going to help them but my 2 year old won’t benefit and my 5 month old in 18 months… and that’s if my childminder decides to sign up. Demand outstrips supply here so I am not sure she will.

I think it's a policy that will be beneficial but sadly not to my family at the moment. I do hope to have another child so it would help if that happens.

I can understand the OP being disappointed, but I understand why it will take time for it to fruition (if it indeed does happen) I have twins that are 6 months old, it's going to cost me and my partner a fortune to put them into nursery when I go back to work! I was hoping it would have come sooner too, but if It does happen I will be glad to have any help at all!

You will benefit from the 15 hours next April though. The full allowance comes into place Sept 25 but it is phased.

Although I agree, the reality is they are holding back the full 30 hours from 9months so they can get credit now during a time of great economic scrutiny and then again they can rehash the same policy as one of their main manifesto pledges.

My DS thankfully has the universal hours from September because he turns 3 in July. Had a really rough year or so paying for him to go to nursery 8-5 three days a week plus a few extra hours for older DS outside of his universal hours. It’s cost thousands. I think it’s a fantastic idea but agree it’s a shame it didn’t come sooner.

Trying to get my head round this but for children who turn 3 in September 2024, who would have been expecting to get 30 hours from January 2025, will at that point only get 15 hours?
(Granted they will have had a couple of terms of 15 hours already so this isn’t a moan it’s just trying to understand).

No I don't think so. The staggered increase from 15 to 30 hours is from children under 3. Children over 3 will continue with their 30 free hours as expected.

Ah ok. That makes more sense. Thank you 😊

The Tories now are in the position Labour were in 2008/2009, they know they can't win the next election and will have to spend at least a term or two of Parliament in opposition. They can afford to wave the magic money tree around - especially for things that won't take effect until after the election - because they know it will be up to the other party to sort it out. If they want to keep it, they have to find the money by cutting something else.

It's all a game, just as Labour will spend the first few years blaming everything "on the previous Tory government" the Conservatives need to pop a few things in the pipeline that Labour will cancel.

It's true that the policy was stolen from Labour.

The free entitlement, when it was introduced as the Nursery Education Grant, really was free to parents and was available to all 4 year olds at first, then extended to 3 year olds. It was for 2.5 hours a day during term time, then increased to 3 hours a day.

Labour were proposing to increase it to a longer day for a long time. During the 2015 election, the entitlement was the subject of a bidding war between Labour, the LibDems and the Conservatives. At the last minute, the Conservatives promised the highest - 30 hours.
It's my opinion they never thought they'd win the election outright. They thought it would be another Coalition Government and they could blame the LibDems when the promised hours failed to materialise. They certainly hadn't thought how they were going to fund it.

In the event, they did win the election and realised they had to fund it with no means of doing so. They forced the providers to subsidise the shortfall instead and, of course, providers have been obliged to pass on that shortfall to the parents.

It'll be interesting to see what happens if Labour win the next election. This is, after all, a key Labour policy and they had costed their own proposals.
I don't think it will prove to be the poisoned chalice Jeremy Hunt hopes it is.

@qpmz I fully agree with that model! We pay £60ish a day for 10 hour days, if the gov't offered to subsidise this by even 40% our fees would decrease so much and the nursery would still get their full rate - I suppose the issue there would be that nurseries would increase their fees to eg £100 a day so we still pay £60 and they get £40 from gov't

I think it would have been better to have some sort of reduced cost (say you only pay £10 a day) and nurseries be properly reimbursed. Then you would have more chance of enough places being funded.

As for the budget, notice how much corporation tax for tech giants in reality will be reduced by. Facebook and Google could end up paying almost nil. No increase in fuel duty but rail and bus fares continue to increase each year.

exactly this!! YABU OP to be disappointed, yes.

It was naive to expect it to start from next month - and I have twins and drowning in childcare bills 😢

I agree with others it's unlikely to ever happen. The government can't force providers to offer funded places so they'll simply refuse

It would have been better to force all OFSTED registered providers to sign up to tax free childcare and invest in the system which would help a lot more families including those having to use wraparound care for primary age. It would also have cost less (nothing)

It would have been better to spend the money addressing the inequality in the child benefit tax charge (yes I'm bitter!! Which would also have helped a lot of families with children right up to the age of 18

How is it unreasonable to be disappointed?