Nursery fees - from June 1st Help

[LJ1218]

I am new to all of this so please bare with me.

My sons nursery closed due to the virus and lockdown but I have received an email today asking for me to confirm if I want to keep his full time place.
While I am desperate for my son to go back to nursery and spend time with his friends, I can’t because I am still on furlough and will prob be so for a while. Because of this the nursery have said to keep his full time space they are asking for me to pay 50% of the full time fees until he returns (which could be in 3 weeks or 3 months)
Has anyone else had this? What do I do? I have emailed the nursery to say at the moment this isn’t possible as I am on furlough and finically can’t afford this, but I’m now worried I’m going to loose his placement and then be forced to find another nursery at last min when I’m asked to go back to work.
Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this? Thanks.

50% is very generous of them.
If you won't pay then they will have to give his place to someone who will.

I’ve sent the same message to my parents as a CM. I can’t afford to hold the place for free sorry. If you still getting 80% then it doesn’t make sense that you can’t afford half fees.

We've been paying 30% all along.

If your nursery is open from 1 June I'd expect to pay full fees regardless of whether you sent him, same as if you went on holiday. Half is very generous of them.

Having said that, if you can't pay, you can't pay and you'll just have to take the gamble that there will be a space available when you need it

I would ring and speak to someone over the phone if possible and see if an agreement can be made. If not consider whether they have a long waiting list or whether you’d likely get a place easily if needed again soon. Bear in mind a lot of parents may choose not to send their children to nursery at the moment so you may find theres less ‘competition’ for places.

Could you take mortgage break or similar to release some money for the place if it means a lot to you? If you really can’t afford it then you don’t have much choice but if works likely to pick up soon could a family member loan you the 50%. It’s so hard I feel for you- FWIW I’ve had friends paying 100% fees the whole time who still can’t go back and it’s awful.

Sorry as of 1st June all childcare contracts become valid again so yes if you want the space you will need to pay 50% retainer is very good most places are charging 100% as per contract or advising parent to give notice. Parents have been very keen to pull the it’s not in contract so not paying you card during the lockdown so now providers are playing by the book if it’s in the contract it stands so full fees as open if you send or not.

We've had an email to say that no fees are due for June, but if we want to retain a place and not send the child back until September, they would like 50% fees for July and August.

I am also furloughed until further notice and feel I have been quite lucky with nursery fees. Since lockdown they have asked for 20% of the fees. When they reopen in June my daughter won’t need to attend, they said to keep paying the 20% until she returns.
So maybe a phonecall to explain the situation may help.
Even though furlough pay is 80% that extra 20% really comes in handy when paying for childcare fees.

Furlough is 80% of wages, nursery is asking for 50% so why can you not afford it?

Yep to be honest you're very lucky they're offering you 50%! Many places are taking the line that (quite rightly) they are open and offering the service, so if you won't pay you will lose your child's place.

Herc, fulough is no 80% of wages. It is 80% of a capped amount. For some people it is half or less of their normal wage. For some people furlough capped at £2000 before tax is less than their rent or mortgage even.

Apologies Xiena I had forgotten about the cap on it.

No problem and only rich entitled people like I am and some people I know would know about it as the average pay i n the UK or mean is below the furlough cap - furlough 100% being 2500 a year or £30k before tax with the state paying currently 80% of it.

Even though 50% is still very high, but our nursery London Nursery Schools (LNS Bluebell Cottage, www.londonnurseryschools.co.uk, @LNScommunity) cancelled its summer services, didn't even provide any online learning programs whatsoever and now is forcing all parents to pay 100% of the term fees! Other parents and us reported the nursery to Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted - UK's education regulator), the Early Years Team at Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBKC - our local council), Competition & Market Authority (CMA - which deals with unfair businesses.

@bensabet why would you pay it OP? Stop paying, ask for a refund on all fees that you’ve paid already (as they’ve shut and couldn’t provide you with the service you’d paid for).
Find a new preschool for September if need be.
If they won’t refund you, just take them to small claims court - it’s very straightforward.

@underneaththeash you're right, many thanks for your comment. I have indeed filed a small claim's court against London Nursery Schools (LNS Bluebell Cottage, www.londonnurseryschools.co.uk, @LNScommunity) to recover my deposit and return of summer term fee. They have refused to pay either of them to me. Meanwhile, I left them a review on google and the owner not only has removed it, but also threatened legal proceedings against me formally by their lawyers!

Unfortunately, some businesses try totake advantage of our judicial system to silence, intimidate and harass true critics of theirs by threatening individuals with legal proceedings and the burdening of the cost of a legal defenceuntil they abandon their criticism. In addition, oftentimes, what you see is because of such businesses, people are forced to censor themselves by taking their honest reviews down, apologising, editing and retracting.

Good for you. Some people really do take the mickey.

I find the attitude that we should all be grateful that nurseries have charged half fees for zero service over previous months extremely odd. We haven't left fivers under the door of gyms, we haven't been paying our hairdressers for their salon rent, we haven't made donations to summer camps and ballet schools and cinemas. So why nurseries? Why do they get to charge for a service they can't provide? And why should we pay for a service we don't currently need or can't afford? The "keeping the place open" thing is bollocks. If they actually have a person who wants to join, then let's talk about it when it happens, not some hypothetical scenario.

I believe we shouldn’t have to pay for unprovided service. You wouldn’t pay for a dental hygienist if your cleaning was cancelled due to Covid19. Similarly you shouldn’t have to pay for a childcare service that wasn’t provided.

You dont "have" to pay, that is correct. But if the nursery has no income, and still has bills to pay, it will eventually close down.
Like any other service, you could go elsewhere, however, many other nurseries would have also closed down, and it depends on your relationship with the staff.

Childcare is not like a dental hygienist, as compared with above. One dentist is much like the next.
But if your child has built up a trusting relationships with their key worker over months and years, it's not so easy just to swap to another nursery. It could be detrimental to the child to have to re settle somewhere new, after the upset of lockdown.

So if you want your nursery to be there for your child after lockdown, you should consider paying.

Where I work they didn't charge at all during closure, and are charging 50% now we have reopened to those who chose not to return in June. But in July it will be full charge to everyone, even if they do not take up thier place.