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!

@SheilaFentiman I wasn’t talking about the principle. I was talking about OP. Given it’s her thread and all. So don’t include me in your “we”.

You extended the OP's situation to talk about what you would do yourself, I took that as a discussion of the principle. Sorry if that was against thread rules.

Many of the questions in the early posts were asked in order to be able to answer the OP questions or to suggest alternate benefits for which she may be eligible. They were neither intrusive nor attacks - however as she failed to answer questions from posters trying to help its not surprising if she was then challenged and doubted (and I'd agree that fact free attacks are not appropriate or helpful).

When multiple posters pointed out that she wasn't eligible for the in work benefit and had already had five months grace she then looked to basing it on her non resident partner (who may or may not be the father) and who himself is now voluntarily unemployed, so yes, she was looking to other ways of extending the benefit to which she is no longer entitled.

I am so confused right now as to why you thought the grace period was months? Your partner doesn't live with you so even if there was a grace period his employment wouldn't count. Love when people feel entitled. Lol chuck your child in nursery while you've stopped applying for jobs! Yes the job market might be rubbish right now but getting a job is doable and beggers cant be choosers. I would've put my foot down if I never had a job and my partner just quit. Sounds like he wanted to leave you both in the if your not entitled to uc cause your savings are above £16000 then id be paying the bill with that or looking for a job.

Currently not looking for jobs as its 'disheartening'

But not claiming benefits and hasn’t actually received any more free hours payments than she/DC were entitled to ie to end august.

So where is the taxpayer subsidy?

To note, if the course she is doing enables her to transition skills from her last job to a new well paid job, then she will again pay employee taxes, just as she did at the job she had until March.

I would've put my foot down if I never had a job and my partner just quit.

What would that look like? She said she didn’t want DP to quit, and she can’t go to his employer and un-resign him.

Register as self employed asap - it gives you 12 months to get a business going… and you qualify for childcare. Sort now & you might be free again by jan

But if you give up your childcare you are unable to get a job.

Only if she has a genuine business.
I'm sure OP would be aware if she was running a business herself.

I wondered about that. Seems rash . Understatement.

You won't be eligible for the tax free account either now. If you claimed it whilst not being eligible, they will recoup it. If you don't live together and he just helps out, why are you claiming based on both incomes? Go on the benefit checker and just add your info as a single person with your own income details and see what it says.

She might be unable to but its a bit weird why he never discussed it with her first? If my partner was quitting a job and I had children with him I would expect him to discuss things like that with me as its a huge deal. Obviously their is a communication breakdown

It’s not clear if they discussed it, she said don’t and he quit anyway, or if he quit without discussing it.

yeah I was not happy about it (it was unexpected) but just stupidly nursery hours hadn't crossed my mind otherwise I'd have said NO STOP! but what's done is done

but completely agree, weird move by the DP!!

Why is the 15 hours after 3 universal? Both of my children got it and literally everyone at their nursery was a millionaire or more. What a waste to give it to us.

Because the aim is early years education rather than just childcare.

Yea but everyone at our nursery is already paying £4.5k a term for less than 15 hours. None of us need it. We are going to do it regardless. We all have full time nannies whether in employment or not. Surely those funds would be better served going to someone like OP?

Why? They don't live together, hus working hours are irrelevant to her entitlement to free nursery hours. Presumably they don't live together so she can claim better benefits so all this I didn't think is crap imo. You took childcare you had no entitlement too now pay the bill

Because the admin required to identify and exclude the wealthiest 1% costs more than keeping it simple and giving the same benefit to everyone. And also when you do have a cutoff, any cutoff, you get huge negativity from the people who are only just over the cutoff saying that it means they are effectively paying thousands of pounds more for the crime of earning £100 above the cutoff.

She isn’t claiming benefits; read her posts. So you are just saying nasty things about her motivation on her living situation for the heck of it.

assuming DP is the child’s father, I
mantain that it is weird for a parent of a child to quit work voluntarily, especially if the other parent was recently made involuntarily redundant. Nothing to do with claiming free childcare hours, I just think it’s a weird choice.

And OP said early in the thread that she accepts she was mistaken and will pay the bill off,

So it’s unclear what you are railing against, TBH.

She describes them as two unemployed people in her opening post and talks about UC and JSA

Her mention of UC is "we are not entitled to UC".
JSA is a contribution-based benefit so her partner has paid into it. He is looking for work.

Thanks @CandyCrushLevel14809

So give the equivalent amount to a related charity which helps young families who are struggling.

In Scotland kids get free school meals universally until primary 4. I did not need that, I could afford school meals, so I donated what I would have paid for school meals to the school every year. This helped bridge the gaps, paying for things the LA/ScotGov wouldn’t fund.

The cost of the admin associated with means testing alongside assessing who will fund provision (because just because someone can afford to fund early years provision doesn’t mean they always will. Not all will fund it regardless.) out-ways the potential cost saving.

Besides, the same could be said for other state services. For example, some can afford to fund private healthcare and would fund private healthcare if state provision wasn’t provided, it doesn’t mean they are any less entitled to use the NHS.

Respectfully I disagree. People who can afford it should pay. Same with private health care. If there is austerity NO ONE like us should get benefits

I don't think your view is widely held, though.