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Original poster

Paying full nursery fees while closed

110 replies

Lionnose · 16/03/2020 13:27

We have been informed we will have to pay full nursery fees if the nursery has to close.

AIBU to fight this?

I don’t want to loose my DS’s place at the nursery as he is happy there and it took time for him to settle in but can’t afford to pay. I don’t want them to go bust so I’m willing to pay some but surely they would be making a huge profit if we all pay full fees while they close?

OP posts:
balalalala · 16/03/2020 21:58

I'm not even sure what I'll do if our nursery insist on full payment if they shut. Tbh I imagine I'd need to hand in notice as with 2 kids full time and a bill of £2k a month, if I'm not able to work and having to take it as unpaid we simply won't have the money to pay. There is no chance my nursery will pay staff in full based on how the owner supposedly treats the staff!

Tanith · 16/03/2020 23:07

"I would be questioning why they didn’t cover themselves with insurance. "

We did. The insurance companies are wriggling out of paying up Angry

Original poster
Lionnose · 17/03/2020 05:38

Thank you for all your replies. My comment ‘huge profit’ was possibly an emotional one as I own a company which is VERY likely to fold during this time as our clients are pulling their jobs from us by the day and as we won’t be offering a service we don’t get paid. So a ‘huge profit’ compared to other companies.

My husband will have to take time unpaid for childcare.

My understanding was if they can make money while open, then being closed they save money on purchasing cleaning products, nappies, creams, wipes, food, petrol for their van they use for forest school, electricity, I’m sure there is more, so passing on any/ as much saving to us as possible would help us to cope and feed our families. I think some of the staff are self employed so I will try to talk to them today to make sure they are getting paid. No idea how we are going to get through this but I want to pay them some costs as I said in my earlier post. I just hope everyone you can all find a solution that suits your family and you don’t end up £0000 in debt and hope we can too

OP posts:
BigChocFrenzy · 17/03/2020 09:02

"My understanding was if they can make money while open, then being closed they save money on purchasing"

No, because almost certainly some parents can't / won't pay

So they are asking all parents to pay in full, in the hope of maintaining sufficient income to cover costs

Whether the nursery goes broke will depend on the ratio of payers : non-payers

AJ1425 · 17/03/2020 09:10

I expect to pay full fees while the nursery is closed. I'm not thrilled about it but I love the nursery and I want it to still be there when it all blows over. My work will be paying me full pay if I cant work so I will at least be able to afford it. If work change their policy, I would have to give up their place and probably not be able return to my job afterwards.

woodchuck99 · 17/03/2020 09:15

I doubt that they will be able to force people to pay. However some people will probably want to. I think whether people continue to pay should depend on whether they are still being paid but perhaps it would be hard to enforce this. I have decided to pay for everything I normally pay for even if it is cancelled because I I will continue to be paid and I don't want businesses and the whole economy to collapse.

Scott72 · 17/03/2020 09:31

I'm curious, has anyone given a timeline on how long all these closures are going to last for exactly? This could last six months or more.

rattusrattus20 · 17/03/2020 09:33

this is impossible to answer, really.

the only 'fair' way for things to unravel in this emergency would be for the pain to be shared equally, which certainly includes all of customers; employees; company owners & shareholders; moneylenders; landlords; utility companies; government, etc etc etc. nobody should be emerging unscathed, getting 100%, nobody.

but of course there's no magic formula to make this happen. maybe government will soon put out some guidelines or help or something - but don't hold your breath.

ocarinan · 17/03/2020 11:04

@devlesko

I can see there being much less need for childcare if we shut down for considerable time.
Some parents will change hours and prefer working less and sharing the parenting more.
I can really see this happening in the UK, everyone feels the need to work now.

Because many people do need to work. Less hours isn't an option for a lot of people.

shinyredbus · 17/03/2020 11:10

i will continue to pay full fees but I can understand how not eveyone might be able to afford that.

SilverDragonfly1 · 17/03/2020 11:45

What happens if some people do pay the fees but not enough to keep the nursery ticking over?

MowCopCastle · 17/03/2020 11:52

@Lifeisgenerallyfun

"I would be questioning why they didn’t cover themselves with insurance."

Harsh.

We've paid thousands in insurance, they won't cover this.

lynzpynz · 17/03/2020 12:58

Me and DH are able to WFH, and we've both already agreed that even if we can't send our DD to the childminder for whatever reason we will still be paying her even though we're not obligated to based on our contract. We want to keep DDs place but equally we realise that she has bills to pay too and as long as we're being paid we'll make sure she is too (although God help us entertaining our 18m old whilst WFH 😂!).

I feel very much for those who are not being paid - how can you afford to pay e.g. childcare when you've no income yourself?! Must be so stressful. Something needs to be done by the powers above to protect those with vulnerable incomes and businesses ASAP.

cologne4711 · 17/03/2020 13:20

The insect related chain was one of the two nurseries I used when my son was small. They had to close for a few days due to a flood and we did get our money back because they had insurance and it actually paid out.

If you take cash from parents and don't pay staff that feels like fraud, like managers taking waiting staff's tips when customers think the staff are receiving them.

Undecided91 · 18/03/2020 11:51

By the sounds of it if nurseries qualify as small business (which they should?) they will get £25k grants from Govt! That is very good news for the parents and means we may not too pay / pay that much in case the nurseries are forcced to shut

NotDisclosedToday · 18/03/2020 11:54

Perhaps nurseries should slightly reduce fees so they pay all their staff and cover overheads but do not make any profit. I think that its the most reasonable solution. I dont think its fair they suffer, but nor is it fair for them to make an operating profit if they are not looking after any children.

Ihatesundays · 18/03/2020 12:06

My DD is 11 now. She was in a nursery that was part of a chain. Staff were paid a minimum number of hours and then had hours added on depending on need/number of children in.
So I am imaging they would be paying their staff the minimum hours they are contracted for.
If they closed and parents all paid - they’d be making a profit.

Squashpocket · 18/03/2020 12:12

I'm expecting once the nurseries do close (and I'm sure they will at some point) that they most likely won't reopen for months.

In which case, there's not much point in us keeping the dc's place as he'll be going to school this year (in theory, but who knows at this stage).

Eeyoresstickhouse · 18/03/2020 12:19

We are storing up an absolute early years crisis after this situation is over. The government have said that funding will continue but it is up to local authorities to pass this on from government.

If businesses cant pay staff and bills they will go under. When we are all cleared to go back to normal we will not have childcare to go back to!

If childcare providers are charging full fees and not paying staff they deserve to go under. That is downright disgusting. The childcare I use will be charging full fees but they are paying staff full wages. I would be pulling my child from any nursery who refuses to pay staff but charges parents.

Yogibear13 · 18/03/2020 12:22

If you and the rest don’t want to pay them then fine don’t, but don’t expect it to be there when the all clear is given

That's a bit harsh. I'd be happy to pay, but if they close and we have to take unpaid leave, we can't magic the money out of thin air to pay them anymore than they can magic it out of thin air to pay their costs.

diddl · 18/03/2020 12:26

Even if the government pays for places to close, there will still be the knock on effect of those services/products not being available & job losses due to that.

It's an impossible task.

peachgreen · 18/03/2020 13:44

Is anyone else concerned about the impact this could have on our toddler's development? DD is such a happy, sociable wee girl - she loves nursery and is always asking to go. I'm devestated to think that soon she won't be able to, and who knows for how long? What can we do to lessen the impact?

diddl · 18/03/2020 15:25

"Is anyone else concerned about the impact this could have on our toddler's development?"

Tbh no, when jobs & even lives are at risk!

peachgreen · 18/03/2020 15:42

@diddl It's possible to worry about more than one thing at once.

diddl · 18/03/2020 15:47

Well yes, but even so, impact of a toddler's development due to not going to nursery-er, nope!