Free nursery

[shirlem]

I'm a little confused! So my son is almost 11 months old, and has been going to nursery for a few hours a week for a while now. I've always paid for this, as I was under the impression he wouldn't get free hours until the next term (September).
I didn't know about tax free childcare (where government pays extra on top of your payment) until today so I've applied for that but as I've applied for that it's also gave me a code for 15 free hours for working parents. I'm confused because I thought this didn't start until September!
I've looked on childcare choices for eligibility and that also says we can't start this until September but I have the code.
Obviously I'll speak to nursery on Monday but wondering if anyone knows what's going on
Thanks!

They give you the code which you need to give to nursery who enter it into a portal. You can’t use the 15 “free” hours until 1st September but you have to apply for them before 31/8/25 hence they’ve given you the code in advance if that makes sense. Then you have to reconfirm your eligibility for them & tax free childcare every 3 months - they’ll send you a reminder to do this each time

Ohhh that makes total sense! Thank you :)

You get 15 free hours a week (11 hours stretched) from 9 months old as long as parents are working.

Ups to 30 hours in September. (22 stretched)

Yeah we don't qualify for any until September as he wasn't old enough, so he goes straight to the 30 hours (22)