Childcare element Universal Credit

[CelestiaBelle]

Hi all, I'm just wondering if anyone can help me with a reply I had when applying for help with childcare costs. The after school club my children are in take cash payment and give hand written receipts. I book the girls in monthly and pay on pick up.

I've provided copies of the receipts and the contract for my children to attend. This is the reply I had in my journal -

"I have not been able to verify your child care cost due to the evidence you have provided.

For each cost I need to see an invoice which shows a breakdown of the dates the child care has taken place and proof of payment, this can be a receipt an invoice marked as paid or a screen shot of the banking transaction"

The club doesn't take payment via bank transfer which doesn't help.
Does anyone have any advice?

You need to speak to the after school club. They may have come across this before. I once typed an invoice and a paid receipt with all the information wanted by universal credit when a company said they didn’t do that. All the information on there was factually correct so they printed and signed for me. I suspect this is against the rules so I titled it invoice draft in line with UC requirements.

Ahh thank you @Lovelysummerdays
I've spoken to them and they were quite vague about it, I'm normally the last one to pick up from there due to work and traffic so haven't had a chance to bump into other parents yet and ask them.
I'll have another word with the club tonight. They did mention that they may start payments via bank transfer. If they did that I'm sure it would solve everything 🙈

They'll need to provide you with an invoice for money paid. Are they a registered provider?

From what I can tell, with the club running fom 15:30 to 17:29 it's under 2 hours a day so registration is voluntary. I'll be checking again with them tonight as there must be other parents who are in the same predicament.

Ask them to put their registration number on the receipt.

Well, after a bit of back and forth with them and getting the teachers to enquire, they're not registered. The leader said that shes happy to write a letter to confirm that my girls go there every week. Hopefully that will help, along with an invoice that fits between the UC dates 🤞🏻🤞🏻

If they aren’t OFSTED registered you can’t claim. It sounds doggy anyway by only accepting cash. What happens if a parent is 1 minute late collecting? Legally they’d need to be registered then

If they aren’t OFSTED registered in England (or registered with the Care Inspectorate in Scotland or Wales) then they aren’t eligible for the UC childcare contribution scheme. Do you know if they are registered?

They don't need to be registered.

Unfortunately for you that means you cannot claim the fees from UC.

They can register even though they are doing less than 2 hours a day due to the fact they take the children immediately after school.

However, given the level of extra paperwork involved you may find they don't want to.

They might though. It's the reason a small asc I used to be involved in registered, even though it was only open for an hour (as after school clubs ran until 4.30)