15 hours free confusion. Help!

[drcrab]

My DS is 3.5 years old and has been going to nursery since 7 months old. He currently goes 3 days a week and since April we've received the 15 hours free and it's been a godsend.

So far so good. Today we received a letter that was very badly written (confusing) that didn't make sense. Amongst other things the letter said that we can only claim 2.5hr/ session free. This doesn't even work out to 15hr per week if a session is considered a full day one. We did wonder if there was a typo error.

Anyway my question really is: can settings only charge 12.5free hours/week? Because at the moment by saying that we can only claim 2.5hr/session, we can only then claim 12.5/week

Just to add too that if this is right then we are considering putting him in something like 4half days and 1 full day so that we can 'benefit' from more free hours. They seem to be saying that regardless of whether it's full or half day, we can only claim 2.5hours. Which then makes 4 half days and 1 full day a total claim of 12.5 hours rather than 3 full days at 7.5hours. Does this make any sense to people?!

Some areas only offer 12.5 hours, I think. And yes I think you can only claim one session per day. It's ridiculous, but then it wasn't designed to help with childcare costs (so why they keep referring to it as though it is supposed to help with these I have no idea) it was designed to allow all children access to preschool education.

Although this doesn't explain why you've been able to claim a free 15 hours up until now Could you clarify in person tomorrow or whenever you next drop him off?

Thank you for the quick reply. Yes will clarify that tomorrow. Am rather peeved at the moment though and can't bloody sleep as a result. And am considering moving him (and his sister at 10 months old) to another nursery. will report back when I hear something.

Thanks again.

It's funny though because by their own sums it doesnt add up to 15 and yet the letter says we can claim up to 15. Agh.

Turns out that it was a case of vvvvv poorly written letter. We still get our 15 hours. Yay! not so yay at the state of english in that organization though!!!