Big unexpected nursery bill for August

[Toastedsesame]

My son goes to nursery 9-2 on a Weds and 8-6 on a Fri. He is 3.5y so we get the 30h funding. Before that we qualified for the 15 hours funding. Nursery charges £10 a day for meals. Usually our bill is £80 a month.

We've received the bill for August and its £226. I initially assumed it was an error so asked for a breakdown. They sent this -

*04/08/2021 9am-2pm £0.00
06/08/2021 8am-6pm £56.50
11/08/2021 9am-2pm £0.00
13/08/2021 8am-6pm £56.50
18/08/2021 9am-2pm £0.00
20/08/2021 8am-6pm £56.50
25/08/2021 9am-2pm £0.00
27/08/2021 8am-6pm £56.50
Session : Total £226.00

Grant Item Date Item Description Amount
25/08/2021 3yr old funding - AYR (Universal)20.00 hrs £0.00

There is no grant available in August.

If you claim termly funding or stretched funding there is no grant in August, the stretched funding is spread over 47.5 weeks of the year, the funding will resume in September.*

Is this right? I had no idea there was no funding available in August. I still have to work so not sending him is not an option. I asked my friends and they all said their nurseries charge the same all year round.

Anyone know about this?

From my experience I think it's normal. Sorry you didn't know and got caught out.

Is this the normal 30 hours free? If so, the funding is only available term time. Our son is in nursery and we get 30hrs but pay full price for school holidays, our nursery flattens this out over the year so it’s not as much of a shock though. They should have explained this to you when you signed up.

Normal, sorry, funding is term time only so you have to pay in holidays.

It depends on your nursery however it would have been in the T&C when you signed.
Our nursery allows us to stretch across the whole year, so the monthly bill is higher but there are no months with an unexpected bill

Unless they are willing to pro rata or across the 52 weeks if you don’t use the whole of your 30h per week.

I used to use 21h a week so nursery kept the balance to use in holidays.

Dig out your nursery docs when you signed up… it will be in the welcome pack

Oh, blimey. I didn't realise this. How annoying as we only use 15 hours.

On the invoice how come the Wednesday hours are charged at £0, but the Friday is the full day rate, does anyone know?

Ours is pro-rata across the whole year as they’re open all year round however they do not get it in the August before a child starts school so will be an expensive month!

Funding is only term time. Some nurseries will spread it over the whole year, others just keep it at term time..

Yes, Government funding only allows for a set amount of weeks like school is only 40weeks of each year then we have to pay for holiday clubs etc. Do you get childcare tax thingy? You have to register but for every £8 the government gives you £2 so you can pay in monthly and have enough with the government top ups to cover the holidays. Nurseries are rubbish at explaining this.

The 15/30 free hours is for education so it only runs during term time. Some nurseries work it out so your bill is spread over the 12 months rather than having a different figure to pay in some months but others stick to the term time billing.

My daughters nursery is open 51 weeks so we spread her funding over the 51 weeks meaning she could go up to 22 hours a week free but all weeks are covered no extra costs
It won't help for this one but see if yours do that so you don't have the same in other holidays especially if your only using the 15 hours at the moment

Our nursery is similar, it stretches the funding but there are 4 weeks a year with no funding so we have to pay the full rate for that week.

As pp the 30hours is mainly term time for pre-school/education, the fact it is for childcare for some people is seperate. Every nursery does the 30hours differently, technically they only have to provide term time funding

It looks as though your nursery stretch the 15 universal hours over the whole year, but not the additional 15 hours -which dont include the summer - maybe to allow for term time children, quite odd but would be allowed as far as I know - only they can confirm this.