Have I got this right RE funded hours?

[LuckyMoonstone]

I am unemployed and looking for work. As far as I know, once you apply for the 30 hour funded code, it doesn’t come into effect until the next term, so in this case January.
So am I right in thinking that if I got a job now and had to send the kids to nursery, I’d be paying fully for nursery until Jan?

that's my understanding but you could call and check

Are you on Universal Credit? As I believe there’s a separate process for that which refunds you 80%

No not on any benefits, it’s a long story.
I did ask the nursery and they confirmed the 30 hours wouldn’t be til Jan but I just wanted to check in case anyone had experienced this and managed to sort something out.
Seems like an unfair system, even if I start work it will cost me and DH an insane amount of money for 2 kids nursery October through December, probably more than I’ll actually earn.

Yes unfortunately January. In my borough you can technically put in a late claim but I tell parents I am not prepared to do that as I won’t receive the money until some undisclosed point NEXT term so I might be waiting until Feb for work I did in Sept. Nope.