2k invoice for nursery pls help!

[extraordinarymachine26]

We were eligible for Tax free and 30 free hours. DC just turned 3.
I was made redundant this Mar, DP quit his job this August (so now none of us are in paid employment).

AFAIK there is a grace period for the 30 free hours, we were paying normal rate until this wk (Oct) nursery said the code doesn't work anymore and now they have send us a £2,300 bill for this month (3 days per week PLUS the shortfall for Sep now that apparently we didn't have funding then).

Am I right in there being a grace period for these 30 free hours or will we just have to suck up and pay the below and probably take DC out of nursery ASAP as this is in no way affordable for 2 unemployed ppl!

We are not entitled to UC but DP is on New style JSA (and looking for work but unlikely to find something till 2027 given the current market).

Anyone with any advice would be welcome!

As I understand, she used 30 funded hours when she was working.
She is not claiming any benefits as I understand.
You said she is unemployed and living off tax payers.
She has been foolish in continuing with the funded hours when not entitled to. She is going to have to pay it back.
Her partner/boyfriend/father of child is claiming JSA - less than £100 a week, which is contribution based.

Where has she said she is expecting tax payers to subsidise?
She has said she liked her child being in nursery while she was job hunting, but she is having to pay that back.

The funded hours is funded by taxes and she was not eligible for it but continued to send her child.
She says she is not claiming benefits (not sure I believe her TBH) but her partner is claiming JSA...again funded by taxes, whether contribution based or not. If he got himself a job then he wouldn't have to be claiming it would he.

She accepted nursery hours that she is only entitled to whilst working, and would have continued to do so had she not been billed. She wasn’t working and wasn’t even trying to find a job after the first six weeks.

Presumably the nursery don’t offer this for free and are subsidised by the government, who use tax money for that.

My understanding from posts earlier on this thread is that a redundancy in March wouldn’t lead to the funding being stopped until 31 August (or the end of the summer term if the nursery was term time only). So she was eligible for the hours that were paid.

Those are the hours she has received, and she hasn’t received further funded hours as the nursery is in shortfall when the code didn’t go through.

So she hasn’t not “lived off taxpayers” as she has only received the correct amount of funded hours for her timings of employment/redundancy.

I wouldn’t apply for “every” job. Not immediately after a redundancy. She isn’t claiming UC so isn’t necessarily obliged to go to a string of interviews where she’s unlikely to succeed. She may have a redundancy payment or savings that are covering rent and food.

And I frankly wouldn’t expect to get far with “every” job if my CV was all about my professional research into Dutch modern linguistics.

She says she is not claiming benefits (not sure I believe her TBH)

You have no grounds for your disbelief. Why post if you think the OP is talking BS?

but her partner is claiming JSA…

Her partner/BF isn’t posting and she disagreed with his decision to resign.

And (as has been said many times), she has been billed for and will pay back.
If you don't believe she is not claiming then there's little point in you giving your POV, I'm just going on what she's has told us.
What the man is doing is not relevant - they don't live together.

But she has been billed so the government (or whoever) will get it back.
She has been taking a course, presumably to improve her opportunities. Maybe she has the funds for this.

You don’t know what your talking about

The op hasn’t received any free hours from anyone - the nursery tried to claim the and they got rejected so she now is going to pay her nursery bill ??

how is that taking anything from anyone ffs

Ok, fair enough. Maybe I’m being unreasonable.

However, it still stands that very little effort has gone into finding another job after the initial six weeks - what did she think was going to happen?