Nursery not refunding back our tax free childcare

[ketale]

Hi, so unfortunately due to ongoing staffing issues at our little one's nursery. Resulting in them being closed short notice for over a month, and then operating with limited capacity thereafter. We ended up having to move them to another nursery because of work commitments etc. And all of the uncertainty with everything covid related that has been going on.

The nursery at the time told us that they would refund us back the nursery fees that we paid in advance using the tax free childcare scheme. However this was now months ago, and is becoming increasingly apparent that they have no intention of refunding us back. Does anybody know how we can go about getting this refund back? I'm assuming as it was paid out from our tax free childcare account that there must be some form of way to complain/report them?

Has anyone else found themselves in a similar position? Any help or advice would be really helpful.

Many thanks

Have you given them your account number to refund back to. Do you have it in writing that they will refund the money.

Just ask them.

Yeah they have all of our details. They were the ones who actually asked for them so they could do the refund. Via email as well so it's all on writing etc.

We have chased and asked them multiple times over the course of the last few months. Sometimes they completely ignore the emails. Other times they reply that they are still working on it. Have spoke with other parents at the nursery as well who have had similar issues getting refunds back. Which is why we think that they have no intention of refunding us it back.

Short of filing a claim against them or something. We're not too sure what the next step is really?

So I dont think there is any nursery that has not had some staffing issue in Covid and with rates in early years now being 5 times higher than in January that is going to continue. So will you move your child again if this one has to shut?
I thinknyour old nursery still had to pay their staff so funds will be short if loads of you left they may well now have no money left....im sure the refunds would have been off of future care as refunding tax free is very complicated they can't give it to your bank account as not all of it is yours you could ask if thats the issue and would they consider paying it to your new setting.
Such a shame you couldn't support your old setting through this horrendous time and I'm sure many will close permanently through this

A month is a ridiculous time to close though, and to have to pay for the privilege, that's more than being supportive to a setting. If you have to work out of the house or whatever it can be the difference between keeping your job or not.

They can't refund tax free money to your personal account, only to the tax free childcare account. You haven't paid tax on that money so it's not as simple as paying an equal amount to you, just like with vouchers.

It's possible the nursery are in the position where they simply aren't able to refund you at the moment.

Yeah they are probably stuck trying to work out how to refund the money. They can't refund back to your bank account, that would be fraud. It has to go back to the tax free child care account.

The account details we provided were to our tax free childcare account. Not our personal account so there's no issue there.

In reply to jannier. Covid wasn't the reason the nursery had to close. It probably didn't help but it definitely wasn't the reason. They closed short notice for well over a month. Roughly a month and a half of the back of high staff turnover. Without revealing too much about the nursery itself, there was really poor staff morale because of the management of the nursery from the owners. Unbeknown to the parents of the nursery, the staff were being stretched thin and forced to work well below the key ratio numbers per room. There were also some other staffing issues however I won't reveal them here because they could be tied back. But to put it into context. The staff were so unhappy with the management of nursery, and how they were being asked to run the rooms that they themselves reported the nursery Ofsted. So the nursery being closed was just one of things we had to factor into our decision. But it definitely was the tipping point

Contact the council - they should be able to help, even if it’s just letting the nursery know they have to address the problem and not ignore it.

That coupled with the struggles of work commitments that the majority of us are going through whilst trying to work from home with a young family

I’d go through the tax free childcare helpline and speak to them about it. I’d also contact your local authority as well. Sounds like speaking to the nursery is a lost cause