I pay £650/month childcare,when DD turns 3 how much am I likely to pay?

[elliebb92]

Okay, so I know nurseries vary greatly and looking at previous posts on this subject everyone says it's like how long is a piece of string!
But...if I give you a few facts about my DD's nursery hopefully some lovely and knowing person can help me estimate the monthly cost?

DD goes 3 days a week, 9 hours/day
Nursery stretches out the 30 hours over the full year (not just term-time), they don't allow funded hours to be used during eating hours, so that's 8am-9am, 12pm-1pm and 4pm -5pm (DD attend 8-5)
Consumables per day are charged at £10.

We currently pay £650 a month (South East) - what can I expect to be shaved off the bill when DD gains funded hours? (Desperately looking forward to a few extra quid before baby2 makes an arrival!)

Thank you so much!

We went from £650 to around £200 for three days....

Can't answer your question specifically but assuming she turns 3 sometime between now and September you know she won't get the funded hours until September right?

Speaking from the bitter experience of an early summer born baby who subsequently couldn't access the hours until autumn.

Are you already using tax free childcare?

Ours went from £700ish to £200ish.

I think it depends on how much the hourly rate or set rate is for the hours the funded isn’t applied too E.g the eating hours. Unless that’s the consumable charge each day. Then if it’s stretched funding it’s 22 hours a week. Most nurseries set there own rules on when the funding can be used, some only allow a few set patterns on days and times.

Yes she turns 3 in august so luckily will get them I sept (will apply soon!)
Seems unfair it's the term after the 3rd birthday, should be the month after really...

I meant to say as well it's £650 after that 20% government tax free payment so it's something like £790 on the invoice!
Would be happy if it was even halved so good to know posters on here have paid around £200!!

So of your 9 hours, they will only take funding for 6 of those, so you will still pay for 3 hours per day, which assume would be 1/3 of what you currently pay for 9.
so 1/3 of £650 is £217 ish, plus £30 per week consumables is approx £120 extra per month. So £337ish would be my guess.
no experience of how these things work but just doing the maths based on what you’ve said!

Totally agree, my daughter was born early April so doesn’t get the funding til September 😩 most annoying thing is she was due in March, if she had arrived on time I’d have saved hundreds if not thousands this term 🙄

The all apply the funding differently but for 2x11hrs in a day nursery our fees were roughly halved once the funding kicked in.

So you'll pay the £10 per day consumables plus 3x hours at the standard rate. Whatever that equates to.

We paid £655 a month (with tax free childcare discount) for three days and it's gone down to £275 a month now (also with the discount). Thought it would be a bit less but still much better.

That's with 30 free hours a week I should say.

This is so frustrating! We get the 30 hours funded. DD goes 3 days (other 2 days childminder) and our nursery bill went from £650 to £508. Think I've been stiffed! I thought it would reduce more, but annualised hours and nursery top ups means it didn't drop much. Its frustrating enough but they've just closed pre-school for the whole week as they've run out of staff! Roll on school!

So it'll £30 a day.

We pay nothing the 30 hours have kicked in.
In NE.
I find it shocking they don't use the free hours for eating hours.

Based on what you have said I am calculating £315.00 a month after the tax relief.
If the bill is currently £790 (before tax relief) and you have 3 x 9 hour days a week that makes the hourly rate £6.75.
3 hours a day @ £6.75 + £10 consumables x 52 weeks in the year / 12 months x 5 / 4

I think that's right! 😵‍💫
Could save even more money if you didn't take your child in until 09:00 when you are on maternity leave with DC2?

Fucking hell that's ridiculous! Could you use your free hours at the childminder instead? At least reduce your childcare bill somehow? What the hell are the nursery charging you for?! They must be making more money out of you now than before if you are paying that much and they are receiving the payment from the government too!! You do know that you still get the tax relief on your bill even with the free hours?

It is ridiculous! Only been hit with the first bill last month and it was a shock so I do think I need to look at other options. I had no idea about tax free childcare too, so that's brilliant. Thank you for that, I'll look into it!

We went from £550 (£440 with 20% tax free) to £157 (£125 with 20% tax free) with 3 days in nursery and 30 hours spread across the whole year (so 23 free hours per week)
DS is in for 3 full days (classed as 7.30-5.30)
Nursery were able to give me these figures before it happened so if you ask they will probably tell you.
The extra few hundred quid a month is glorious!

How complicated! In our setting we would charge you for the additional 5 hours over the 22 funded hours plus the food charge each day and that's it. Your bill would be around £45/£50 a week Not funding a whole day seems crazy.

Hi OP - not sure if this has been posted already or not but you could always email your nursery to find out and they'll give you the realistic rate.