Nursery charging more per day when 15 hours free childcare starts -is this normal

[Rachelly123]

Dd has been in her nursery for 18 months. I have always been billed for 2.5 days per week. 2 days at the daily rate of £51 per day and half days at £32.

As of January she gets 15 hours free childcare - equates to 1.5 sessions . Therefore I am charged for the remaining 1 day. Which is expected to be £51 per week. Today I received the invoice for January. Rather than 4 X £51it was 8 X £32 (8 half days) therefore I am paying £64 per day as apposed to £51 per day!... Is this normal?? And would I be unreasonable. To question this. I have checked the pricing on their website and it does state non funded session is £32 but this seems unfair.

The government seriously under funds the 'free ' hours forcing providers to cover the shortfall. If they didn't do this they would withdraw from the scheme altogether.

Absolutely. My nursery credit the bill with the amount they receive off the LA. When you break this down they receive below £3.00 per hour from the LA but charge £4.50. So we are always paying towards the "free" hours. We just treat it as a bonus that we are getting a discount. There would be far less confusion if the government stopped referring to it as "free".