Please help! 30 hours funding

[Mrsthomas29]

Sorry for the long post.

I have a two and four year old, I’ve been studying with the Open University for the last year and since finding out about the 30 hours funding (started in April in my area) I found the perfect job that will eventually lead me into becoming a social worker. Myself and my husband decided that for the right job we could struggle and make a loss on the childcare for a few months until we are childcare fee free.

So, my four year old is in part time nursery (1st September baby) so he can be funded from the end of April. My littlest will be three in July so he will be funded from September when my eldest goes to full time school so that’s when we don’t have to pay for either of them (yay!)

When I applied for this it was stated that you can get nine weeks school holidays funded too. Today I realised that this is spread out over the year and limited to three weeks per term. I’m using one week funded for May as I have no other option, and one week in the first week of the summer holidays, I could possibly get off another week in there somewhere, but this means I would still have to find an additional £780 on top of the £937 that I’ll already be paying for that month.

My husband can’t take time off during the school holidays as he is a senior building surveyor and is running massive projects on all the schools.

Has anyone else had this problem? I can’t rely on family for childcare as they either work themselves or are unwell.

Baring in mind I am part time and earning around £700 a month

Your nursery might allow you to do 22 hours a week over 51 weeks of the year. That's what we do.

Thank you! I will speak to them xx

Yep that’s what we do too. Also just to check are you also using tax free childcare/ work childcare vouchers?

Sorry, can’t help with that but these words jumped out at me...childcare fee free

Remember that childcare before/after school and during the holidays (when they start school) is costly and not always easy to come by. The 30 hours at nursery is good, but things can get very expensive again when they start primary so unless you are working 9.30-2.30, this—

September when my eldest goes to full time school so that’s when we don’t have to pay for either of them (yay!)

May not be quite so simple.

Funded doesn’t mean free

It would be free for me as thankfully I work 9am-1pm.

Only have to pay for food and school pick up which is £4.75 a day - brilliant!

My family have rallied around and between them they are going to help with childcare over the summer so I am really grateful x

@moreismore I didn’t think we are able to use those alongside the funded hours? X

If your child was born in September, you should have got the 30 hours in January. Or at the very latest, beginning of April.

You can use the tax free child care but possibly not the vouchers. I use 30 hrs and tax free childcare, it’s definitely worth it. The gov website is confusingly worded but I’ve found them very helpful over the phone.

You can use vouchers with the 30 hours and tax credits.

Thanks everyone I’ll look into the tax free childcare!

Our district didn’t have the 30 hours available to anyone until 29th April x