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!

A means to a life on benefits? Several girls I’ve worked with over the years have watched their mates have babies and get housed as they were
“on their own 🙄”
Soon my colleagues were also pregnant, housed etc and one even came into work to tell us we were all “mugs” for actually working!!
The fact that the DP suddenly jacked in his job is dubious… you’d want to support your baby and its mother wouldn’t you..?

40 applications since March?
jeez- the appropriate number would be 40 a week! Minimum

Christmas jobs are now being advertised

Why the need to wait until 2027 to start working ?

BUT she says he's not 'really' a partner.

So we don't know if he is the kids' dad- probably not.

In the OP's defence (sort of) she's doing a course which she hopes will lead to a job so it's not as if she's sat at home twiddling her thumbs... and that could be a reasonable thing to do post-redundancy if it wasn't for the partner/non-partner unexpectedly quitting his job. We definitely need more info on the back story there.

Precisely. It is "Childcare for Working Parents scheme" after all.

OP you absolutely can look for work with a toddler at home FT. Depends on how much you actually want to fins work though....

Clearly not a priority for them then for some wild reason.

Both parents must work 16 hours or more a week to get 30 hours. It’s 15 hours otherwise

Do you need nursery/childcare if you're both unemployed?

Can't you both look after DC since neither of you is working?

Absolutely insane to expect the state to fund childcare while both parents are sat at home

More than just some. Why would anyone need 30 hours childcare in a home with two unemployed adults…especially when the health of the adults allowed them to both work so it’s indicative of them being physically/mentally able to look after a child

40 applications in 7 months?? That's not even 2 a week.....and your child has been in nursery so you have had plenty of time.
Sorry, but I really begrudge funding people like you and your DP with my taxes.

Ikr, my 18 year old has managed to get more than 1 interview and he has never had a job before now…there’s loads of Christmas jobs available

Perfect Labour voters material

OP said their DP does not live with them.

Plenty of parents not in employment are eligible for nursery places. It’s for the developmental and social benefits of the child. The childcare fees (nursery / camps etc) are designed to be detrimental for working parents as they must fund their own children while having to work full time as there is no alternative to not working.
As an aside isn’t there a childcare grant when a parent is in education?

The applications were only over a period of around 6 weeks, yes I stopped looking for work after that, felt a very disheartened but am aware I will need to be looking full time (for months!) and send many more applications before I (hopefully!) find something.

My question was only about if there was a funded hours grace period, am aware it is funding for working parents so if parents stop work at some point the funded hours stop just wasn't sure when it stops.

Will try & meet with the nursery to see if we can do this on some sort of payment plan & reduce days until the 15 free hours kick in or a job is found.

When politicians talk about spending too much on welfare they are definitely looking the wrong way. They should think about this example. Why should tax payers fund this?

“I worry taking him out may risk losing our spot come January when DC can go at least 1 or 2 days for the 15h”

I don’t know where you live, OP, but when my DD fell into difficulties through no fault of her own (she was on maternity leave and the company she worked for went into administration) and she lost her free nursery hours, the most the nursery could reduce her DC’s nursery hours was by 2 hours a day - he went five days a week - and she couldn’t take her DC out of nursery because she would have lost the place.

When you mention you don’t live with your partner, are you claiming as a single parent and is the nursery debt recorded as your debt only?

Surely if you only spent 6 weeks applying for jobs you could have been looking after your child for the rest of the time not expecting the state to pay nursery fees?

All sounds like a very weird situation to me and I think you should have to pay your nursery bill.

Strong disagree. Once you’ve done a handful of applications you’re essentially couching the same skills in a different way for each application. Last week I wrote a 3,000 assessment in one day, and that including looking up technical information, extracts from training and referencing.

Writing about myself I could do at least 3 solid applications like that in a 7 hour day. It might be a bit soul destroying to do that every day (but so are a lot of jobs, but ignoring that), even if you did that every other day with the weekend off that’s 9 good applications a week. She lost her job about 27 weeks ago. That’s opportunity for 243 applications with 4 days off a week.

She has been specifically putting her kids in nursery “as it’s difficult to job hunt with a toddler at home”, and we’ve been paying for that.

Although tbh I don’t resent that so much as it’s not the child’s fault and it’s probably good for them to spend as much time as possible around adults who contribute to society so they do have positive role models and hopefully see they can make a better life than their parents have.

Why don't you save your spiteful comments for the next benefit bashing thread if you've got nothing constructive to add to this one?

What are you qualified and experienced to do?

Applying for only 6 weeks is nothing and you know that.

Why doesn't the father look after your DC while you look for work OP?

I know you said he's not much of a partner and 'helps out' a bit with DC 🙄 He quit his job after all so maybe he can look after the child and you look for week, then you don't need tax funded childcare.