Universal Credit + 30 funded hours — how does it work?

[Hopingforhome]

I’m trying to understand how Universal Credit childcare support works alongside the 30 funded hours for 3-year-olds.
My nursery’s normal hourly rate is higher than the Government funding rate, so there’s a gap between what the nursery charges and what it receives through the funding.
If my child attends more hours than the funded entitlement, can UC cover 85% of the amount I actually have to pay, including any shortfall on the funded hours?
Or does UC only cover the cost of the hours that are outside the funded entitlement?
Thanks! I’m really confused about how these two schemes interact.

I don’t know the answer for certain but I very much doubt that UC will make up the shortfall , and they also don’t cover any food / consumables.
How many hours will you be working? As that’s also relevant with how many hours childcare you can claim , ie you can’t work 3 days and claim for 5

Childcare manager here and I handle our funding claims.
Even though the nursery’s hourly rate is more than the funded hours rate they absolutely cannot charge you a top up fee for those funded hours. They also cannot force you to have their food/ consumables unless you want to use theirs and be charged for it. You have the option to provide your own food nappies etc. There has been a big campaign recently reminding nurseries of this.
The only thing they can insist on charging for is any hours above your funded hours that you need.
You will need an invoice from the nursery detailing what you have been charged for to submit to UC. You have to pay the nursery and then claim it back from UC.
I’m not entirely sure what UC pay for but just had a quick google and it looks like it will cover 85% of any costs above your funded hours including food, consumables and extra hours.

Our childcare is around £1200 a month, minus funding we are due to pay around £640 and we get around £530 UC towards that