Can nursery ask us for proof of salary?

[cockles]

Our nursery has rearranged their fee structure and is now making it wages dependent. They want all parents to give them proof of salary, payslips, etc. Are they allowed to do this?
Thanks!

How wierd!
No I wouldn't have thought so
is it something to do with busy bees vouchers?

Surely the costs of looking after a child in any given setting are independent of parental income? If you want me to pay more because I earn more, then I expect a better level of care, one-to-one etc.

I wouldn't have thought it was legal.

Depends if they are offering a low income linked reduced price. If they are, and iff you are wanting to use it, it's reasonable for them to see proof of earnings.

If they are not offering this, or it wouldn't be applicable to you, or it WOULD be applicable to you but you don't want to use it, I wouldn't show them anything. I'm fairly sure they aren't allowed to make your child's place dependent of whether or not you flash a wage slip/

How odd. If they are offering a reduction in fees for low income then yes you should have to prove your entitlement. If they simply want to charge high earning parents more then I would tell them to get stuffed. Are your fees going up or down?

My fees are going up considerably. They say this is local authority (learning trust) policy. They are banding fees into three categories dep on income.
Thanks!

contact your local authority and ask them if this is true.

That sounds really odd!

This sounds well wierd

Is the nursery private or state maintained?

TBH that shouldn't matter but means testing fees is just bizzarre, i'd be mighty miffed if I was paying more for the same standard of care than someone else's child in the same room.

It's state maintained. So I guess it makes sense if the council has a policy across all of them - I'd just never heard of such a thing before. Will try to ring them tomorrow, attempts to get info from local council = impossible.