How much to pay??

[whathousepanic]

Help please, I'm shit at maths!

My daughter is finally getting her 30 free hours and her new nursery bill will be £1000 per month.

What amount should I put in to get the £500 from the gov per month?!?

£1000 a month after your funded hours? Are you sure?

Have you registered for the free 30 hours?

What do you mean by £500 per month? Tax free childcare is up to £500 per quarter I believe. They will add 20% to whatever you put in, so if your bill is 1000, then you add 800. It's surprising that your childcare bill is still so high though after 30 free hours??

Gosh yes I missed that. It's 20% per month up to a total of £500 per quarter. At a thousand pounds per month you won't get the full 20% discount as you will hit the threshold in the third month.

Generally you times your bill total by 0.8 to find out how much you need to transfer.

Ok, times by 0.8! Thank you. And I did mean £500 per quarter, sorry.

Her current monthly cost is £1700 so £1000 is actually quite exciting.

She goes full time and we live in London. The cost is average for round here.

Wow! That will make a difference to your bill.

The childcare system is really messed up 🤦‍♀️

Isn't it just?

I don't have the family I want (2 kids) because of the cost.

The £500 you can get back per quarter works out at £166.66/month - I used to pay in my monthly total minus £166 (so in your case £834). The first month you might get a higher top up than £166 but doing it this way meant I was paying in an even cost every month.