Funded hours are actually huge help

[bessie45]

Reading an article in the times today and parent states the funded hours havnt helped their bills, I really can’t understand how that can be the case? Aka once they eventually become eligible (the whole not until the term after they turn 9 months is frustrating) Desoite a £15 per day top up charge we are still saving over £450 a month compared to our bills before September. Given that even with that saving we have £0 left this month after bills (not even including food) then it is a non too insignificant sum. How can these other parents say they’re not saving anything???

Different nurseries charge different rates. Hidden fees, top ups.

The way the hours were advertised it was free hours so of course people are put out that the 30 hours free isn’t actually free.

Yep a massive help to us too!! Both getting the 15 and then the 30 felt amazing!
but our youngest goes 3 days a week so it’s a bigger proportion I guess than if they went 5

I think they always called it funded hours in recent years and just like when child at school, meals etc have to be paid for and is only for term time. How can parents expect more than they’d get if their child was at school. We send our DC to a lovely private nursery, we’re not going to expect to pay the same as the local charitable preschool in a church hall which doesn’t charge a top up. Just kind of think someone who is complaining that a £450 a month saving makes no difference to them probably doesn’t need the help in the first place.

I think people mentally thought it would be free, so finding it isn't free was a blow.

I couldn't afford to work when mine were toddlers.... you got help if both parents were low income, but one higher income excluded you. So starting out on a professional career, your pay was too low to break even, then add in transport etc you were paying to work. Things have improved massively since then.

O still think they should have just put a set amount into peoples tax free childcare account rather than calling it hours.

Made a huge difference to us, and did for a friend too.

But another friend’s bill went up £20 when the funded hours came in.

Entirely depends on the provider and how they structure their fees. I know a nursery near us has stopped accepting the hours at all, because they were losing £20k a year.

Yes but it’s still a huge saving either way, just seems like these new parents think they should be entitled to even more than parents get when their children would be at school!! £450 a month a huge sum for us

Yes would have made it clearer. Does seem funny these new parents grumbling, when I had our last one my entire salary went in childcare so this is such a huge help to us with our new little one. I suppose if they are sort of people who can afford to spend 4K a year on a holiday it’s not going to seem like such a big deal

That is crazy if their bill actually went up, I would think that’s by far the exception rather than the norm though. I can understand settings that have refused to take part in the scheme as so many grumbling parents going to the papers complaining about small top up fees charged by the 5 star nursery they’ve chosen, no wonder some nurseries are saying if you want to benefit from what we have to offer you have to accept we are a fully private establishment. The article complained that one nursery in London charged £40 a day top up fee, while I can imagine that’s still a huge saving as we pay £70 a day up north and everyone knows prices for everything in London are astronomical so the saving must still be quite huge. We certainly couldn’t afford to live in London (actually had to move away years ago as clear completely unviable with children and even when offered amazing job opportunities there we couldn’t afford to move back). We had a lovely little preschool locally that shut down a few years ago because they didn’t want to charge top up fees, a shame as all of us said we’d rather have paid them,

Agreed. We pay £140 a month for 3 days at nursery - 8am-4pm. I don't think that's bad at all!

My LO goes three mornings a week, so just 15 hours as that’s all that required, I only work part time. Our nursery invoice has gone from £570 pm down to £64pm. Then with the 20% childcare tax allowance it’s down to just £51. I feel very lucky to have the funded hours. I can’t believe the huge difference in nursery top up fees meaning that some aren’t benefitting at all from these funded hours.

We're in East London and almost every single nursery has waiting lists, especially for baby room or kids under 3. So, 4 nurseries around us prioritising parents paying in full, without claiming "free" hours. My second born was on waiting list since I was pregnant (2022) and I got a call from one of the nurseries. They offered me : I'm claiming 10hrs free, the rest I'm paying (around £1100/month), full time nursery. My neighbour got offered only 5 "funded" hours. It simply doesn't work in some areas, especially London as nurseries can't survive with places filled under government funding.

That is great, we pay £100 a month top up fees for 2 days a week at an amazing nursery and a half day with childminder doesn’t cost us anything. We had to put our baby’s name down when I was 12 weeks pregnant for a place when DC turned 1.
As for those in London, there was a 2 year waiting list at the decent nurseries even when I lived there 20 years ago

Yes I used to live around there years ago when had my

first, the nurseries were either of dire quality or the half decent ones had waiting lists of years, London’s been a dysfunctional hellhole for years, was blown away by difference in the average standard of living up north in comparison

Yeah... my kids' nursery shut unexpectedly because they weren't being properly funded for the "free" hours, and they were a community nursery that didn't want to charge top up fees etc.

Looked for another nursery, couldn't find anything with the hours we needed and two spaces (twins).

Well done government.

Northern Ireland has zero funded help for childcare. Then the gov wonders why it has the lowest socioeconomic engagement in the UK!

Funded hours sound amazing and I’m glad GB have them I just wish they were here too.