Childcare vouchers

[freddiefrankie]

I've just started my little one in nursery - she's 12 months.

I've only just seen the 20% tax free child care

I've already paid the first invoice which had to be settled in order for her to start, to register her and get her uniform. What im confused is how the 20% works ?

I understand I need to create an account and pay into that but now I've made a direct payment have I missed out?

Thanks !

Yes you need to pay via the childcare choices account and the government will add their 20% in that.

Yes, you will have missed out for the payment you've already made.

To get the 20% you have to set up a government childcare account, then pay into that. The government then tops it up (so you pay in, for example, £80, the government then adds £20 so the account has £100 in it). You then pay it directly from that account to the nursery. If you withdraw the money to your personal account it removes the government top up.

100% ask your nursery.

Like you we had to pay the first month's fees in advance to secure the place but I was more than 30 days from going back to work so wasn't eligible to set up the tax free childcare account at the time.

They allowed me to pay the fees in 'cash'. Then once the account was set up I paid the 80% into the account, got the top up and released the full amount to the nursery. So they'd basically been paid twice for the first month, and they then refunded me the full amount that I had originally paid to secure the place. I hope that makes sense!!

Wait, your 12 month old needs a uniform for nursery??

Yeah, that's crazy 😂

Yeah ! A a T-shirt with the nursery logo and a jumper for when it's colder
They wear their own bottoms

'
@mnabq hardly crazy ? It's nice I think
And quite common for nurseries around here

I've never seen a uniform in anything below the age of preschool, sounds like another way to make money from the parents!

@bestwishess it IS a pre school so I guess they want to
Keep it uniform
No pun intended 🤣as I say I think it's nice