What do I do, HELP!!

[Whatdoidoargh]

Hi all, NC for this.

I'm a single mum, moved from London to Leicester due to the cost of living. Enrolled my child in full time nursery from 1 November (a few settling in days in October). Handed in my 30 hrs childcare code and NI number etc. …and yesterday was hit with an invoice for £1k for full fees as as I’ve started a new nursery mid-term they can’t apply the 30hrs until January - without telling me. The council says the nursery should’ve applied for a mid-term adjustment before 14 November, but didn’t, and there is no leeway on this. What the hell do I do, I can’t afford to pay until January I was very careful to keep the child in nursery only for the 30 hours to only pay for food etc. each month

What did the nursery say when you went back to them about the mid term adjustment? I didn’t realise they could do that, so it’s great that there is an option and hopefully a workaround?

When did you apply for your code?

They’ve been in London nurseries since they were 11months so I’ve had the right code and either 15 or 30 hrs consistently since then, I gave it to the Leicester nursery in October and it’s only now they’ve given me a massive bill and basically an explanation of ‘they won’t get funding until January, and we didn’t know we could apply for a half year adjustment and anyways we’ve missed the deadline so…’

Has anyone been in a similar situation? I can’t seem to find any avenues to appeal this, the council says it’s a hard HMRC deadline.

It's really difficult to advise because all tne LAs administer it differently.

Here, your previous nursery would be entitled to keep the whole terms funding because that is where child was on headcount day (2/10 in our LA). Funding is paid in batches, usually in advance.

For rhis reason I dont take on mid term movers. New starters with an unused code fine, but as you can see, it gets messy!

Your only hope seems to be a resolution with the nursery. They wont be paid funding and you have used their service.

Your old nursery would likely have got the full terms funding, and your new nursery is right they won’t be able to get the funding until January. If you’ve missed the HMRC deadline I’m not sure there’s much you can do. Have you spoken to your old nursery about it? If they’ve got the full funding then maybe there’s a way they can transfer that but I don’t think they have to and there might not be a way to do it.