30 hour funding - never went through, not told for 6 months £2500 arrears built. AIBU to say it's not all my fault?

[Rainbowloverparentx]

Nursery 30hr funding issues with nursery provider.

Hi, I have a 4 year old in a nursery setting.

To note, I have mental health difficulties, awaiting an assessment for ADHD and Autism (I'm 26 F) and a phyiscal disability.

She's been there since she was 2.5, I was eligible for the 2 year funding due to low income.

I got back into work and had to up my child's hours.

I fell into some arrears and was notified of the 30hrs for working parents. First off, I wasn't eligible, then I went onto a full time contract and applied and was eligible.

I attended the nursery to drop my daughter off and they said I needed to sign a form and then they'd be able to access the funding.

I applied in August 2023 and signed this prior to September they told me they needed it done for then for the new term.

No one told me I needed to supply a code for them to access it.

They nursery has 3 or 4 other settings, 1 was recently closed by Ofsted due to being inadequate. Our nursery manger left in August.

I had no invoice from August-Jan.

Months go by and fast forward to late December, I get a call which I miss and an email stating I'm in substantial arrears.

I reply stating I will be able to make a payment at the end of December, still, no one made me aware of a total amount outstanding.

I then was subject to an assault at work, where I required medical attention and substantial after effects from the injury. I had time off work and therefore was unable to pay.

She makes contact again and tells me she needs my child's 30hr code, as she hasn't got it and therefore from September to January. I actually did not have any additional funding and therefore my arrears accrued over £2,500.

I have signed another confirmation since then as its every 3 months and not once, did anyone ask me for the code.

I did not even know I needed a code, I should of read all the information better but I have now been made aware it is the nursery at fault.

As they have a something called a 'headcount' to check the register and who requires the funding prior to it being put in.

This means, someone could of and should of made contact with me during August/September to make me aware they needed the code.

No one ever did.

No invoices, no communication for months, which therefore I was under the assumption no further bill was needed to be paid.

I still have no figure, I just expressed my frustration to which she just apologised for and then I set up a repayment plan for what I could afford as I was threatened with them reducing my daughters hours and therefore I'd be unable to work, unable to make any further payments and just be totally screwed.

I'm wondering, am I really the one at fault here?
Is it worth consulting a solicitor or something regarding this?

Thanks, a very stressed and anxious parent.

I'm a bit confused by this comment as it has been noted that they would of been notified when doing their headcounts.

I'm not trying to argue the money or the lack of me looking into the T&Cs

I just wish it was communicated a lot earlier that something wasn't right when I thought I had done everything right.

Otherwise I believe it could of at least been found in November? I'm not sure hence why I've come here.

Was your child in the headcount provided to the council?

It sounds like your code was and is still valid.

Contact the council on Monday, have your code ready, they can see when it was eligible from and when you need to renew.

Plead your case, they may well agree to backdate the funding from Sept to Dec for you.

Thank you so much for your educated response.

I will go about doing that next week.

Life has been utterly overwhelming and I could appreciate that their circumstances were likely different.

It wasn't until I was notified of the headcount that I felt this is something I could look into further. I'm really shocked that they didn't even suggest this, their suggestion was to drop her hours so I could pay more off.

If this is the case I expect OP would have to go to small claims to get it enforced and meanwhile the nursery will likely terminate her contract for non payment. If she does agree to a payment plan this might be seen as accepting responsibility for the debt. Given your financial situation OP would it be worth sending the relevant documents to your ex and taking him up on the offer to see if you have any legal recourse here? I could see where there's an argument for the equivalent of contributory negligence applying, but I don't know if that exists in contract law. Also something to note a contract can't actually give the childcare centre protection from situations where they would legally be liable.

I would continue with a payment plan but meanwhile try and get it backdated. I’m sure if you appealed with the council and pleaded your case re your disabilities that they would definitely look on it sympathetically. Worth a try anyway.

Try to speak to someone over the phone at your councils early years team but also email them with the full details. It’s good to have it in writing from the start of your contact with them about this. Ask them to speak to the nursery too.
It sounds very much as if the nursery have dropped the ball since the manager left. I get notifications all the time telling me to check the parents codes again and make sure they’re all on the headcount.

I think that the form filling is on you but that they should have been invoicing you monthly.

How did it work before? How often did you receive notification of payment due?

My advice to cut out the superfluous when dealing with the nursery. When the form was filled in, when the hours changed etc is all secondary.
Email them and request their policy for issuing invoices and for a record and evidence of all requests for payment sent to you.

Get to the bottom of this rather than bringing in everything at once.

Yes it's clear you have made a mistake but it seems unusual to allow such a large debt to arise without chasing. Submit a polite but factual email requesting their records of this.

So, since you applied and got your code in August, that would have been valid up until 3months after that. It seems that you then didn’t re-confirm your code.
And from that deadline up until now, you have occurred costs.Since your child with the same provider, the ‘Grace period’ is valid here. This is for situations like this, or when the parent’s circumstances change(their income drops and they become not eligible), it gives you a bit of time to sort things out.
OP, as other posters said, please do ring your local Funding team or Family Information Service, and they can check the end date of your grace period.
From the sounds of it, your funding still stands and you should ask the nursery about it.

Yes this. I have some involvement with 2yo & 30 hour funding & it's very clear that us as an organisation have to confirm eligibility with parents & obtain the relevant codes in order to access the funding.

I don't understand what the nursery have been doing. How have they not noticed? We pay for a service that tells us when parents are coming up for renewal, but even without that it's just an admin task to contact parents every 3 months. It's not hard.

OP did you reconfirm with the government website every 3 months? Do you have emails that show it?

I would push back. The nursery have missed out on the funding because of their poor procedures and lack of organisation. It's not your problem and they are VERY out of order trying to make you pay for their error.

As you started the application through government website and it confirmed you were eligible, at that point it would have provided you with a code. The nursery should have asked you for the code as they would have needed to provide the code regularly into the portal to claim the funding.
However, you should also have been receiving regular text messages and emails reminding you to renew your code.
It sounds as though your nursery hasn't been claiming for your funding properly and neither have you.

Sorry, just re-read your original post,
you have applied for the code, got it but nursery haven’t asked for it after that.
Well, that is their responsibility as a setting to obtain the code from the parents. As they have to put it on their system Providers Portal. This system is linked with the Funding Team who then pay the provider. They most likely realised their error when the Funding team at the council haven’t paid them for your child!

I’m sorry for not being more helpful earlier, and genuinely apologise for my spiteful comment.
I would say the nursery is unreasonable for allowing such a debt to build up. After it wasn’t paid once, why were you not contacted? I do feel that they should bare some blame in this.
However, I know of a colleague who was overpaid for several years (The CEO signs off the payroll each month!). Legal teams were involved but it didn’t go in her favour (it was around 10k). I felt this was massively unfair as the CEO signed off the payroll for years which allowed it for to snowball.
Is there no way the government will backdate the payments for their 30hours?

I have had very little communication since August. Only late December/Early Jan, even then they often take a few days to respond.

Life has been a whirlwind, but I do remember getting an email marked important to renew and was aware of the renewal every 3 months. I did this and didn't think anything else of it.

Since my circumstances haven't changed and the reconfirmation and no update or invoice from them. I just was simply unaware, I do admit I am at fault for not checking further but they were aware I was going through a lot alongside everything else.

There's been none of this support from them, stating it could be back dated or even an actual figure or invoice of what is owed to date.

I'm actually shocked now I've thought into it further.

Prior to August I received monthly invoices.

I haven't a clue if I'm honest!

Thank you so much.

I have had a good look and I was all reconfirmed on time and isn't needed until mid/late Feb.

I'm really hoping I can get this sorted.

So, in theory, they have made the error and now are causing me such stress in trying to obtain it back?

I did everything correctly, I had absolutely no idea nothing wasn't going as planned!

But if they had only done their job correctly none of this would of happened.

I'm not stating that I'm not liable but I had the funding, I had the code, it appears they like were claiming for her and there has been no suggestion from them about attempting to reclaim it, just paying the full amount back to them.

I think it's really poor management - I have already discussed repayment.

It's hard to do all the admin tasks at times!

That's the thing, no communication, no error noticed and bam.

I'd done everything, but completely forgotten in the whirlwind of life to ask and no one mentioned so I was under thr assumption all was going smoothly!

I'm just so confused by the process!

I haven't received any invoice or even a total of how much is owed to date from at least August.

I don't know where to go moving forward!

I reconfirmed it on 16th November, til 14th Feb.

They are stating they've not claimed any funding since I put it through.

My income and working hours haven't changed.

I'll be on to that Monday, thank you!

We ask all our parents who are eligible for any type of funding to fill in a funding form. This has to be done before headcount day.

We will then tell them about needing a code for 30hr funding which can be accessed via childcare choices to see if they are able to receive it. If they are they get a code to give to us. As we don’t know each families circumstances all we can do is signpost them to the information. The rest is up to the parents to look into and apply if they can. Ultimately we send an invoice for hours of care given, the parent has the responsibility of sorting payment whichever way works for them. We accept a variety of funding and vouchers but the parents are responsible for sorting this.

Headcount data in most boroughs is due in mid January for the year and is just x number of 3/4 year olds including funded and non funded children. It's not per child it's just a forecasting tool for school places. In my borough we input estimates of funded hours for next term 2 weeks prior to end of term then actuals 3 weeks into the new term....it's the actuals that need the code and only then that your told a child is eligible or not so I'm summer that's 10 weeks after you filled the form in....7 at Christmas.
It is your job to read the emails and full instructions if you have difficulty you need to ask for support a nursery may have 40 children various funding schemes and non funded children they can't chase after everyone saying have you read your emails?

That's the census but there's also headcount fay for each term. I wondering the OP is transposing the different words she's heard.

Also OP, I'm confused because at the beginning you said you had no idea about a code and never heard from anyone about renewing the code, now you say you did all that?

I stated that I was aware I needed to reconfirm my funding and eligibility, which I have mentioned.

I wasn't aware of any code, it was in one unopened message. I have had some great advice which I would make contact with the relevant departments. It appears likely they've claimed funding for her via their headcounts.

I don't know a lot about this. As a new parent and as a nursery, it would have been nice for them to pick it up months before. As I could of used the second half of her funding.

In the reconfirmation as attached there's no mention of a code. It was a simple error on my behalf and if the nursery were organised and had administration in place they'd of noticed, billed me appropriately and invoiced correctly.

None of this was done.

No one .mentioned calling the council and asking for them to potentially back date it, not even an apology on their part for lack of invoices lack of communication on the full amount, just threats.

I dint understand why all you're trying to do here is catch me out?