School fees advice

[Charlotteh85]

Is anyone able to explain 15 hours free childcare and tax free childcare for a child starting fee paying school before they turn 5. Are they still eligible for these free hours (school bill has deducted these from the total bill) and, if still eligible for these, can I pay through tax free childcare until term after they turn 5? I’m very confused about it all. Website suggests no longer eligible, so do not understand the bill from the school.
Thanks for your advice

It should be up to and including the term the child turns 5. So if your child turns 5 in October you are still eligible for the autumn term and then in spring you would not be entitled. At our school you would still be able to use tax free childcare and childcare vouchers for after school care.

TBH, this is what annoys me about a system that reward someone all. Childcare for some is so much more than they would earn that they realistically can't afford to return to work until their child starts school at 5. Such subsidies should be linked to family income.
OPs income is such that they can afford a fee paying school. I object to subsidising that through my taxes.

But the OP is paying tax too!

I used tax free childcare hours for my DS until the term after he turned 5. Was just deducted from his bill. I wasn't allowed to use 30 hours though (despite initial promises) so didn't save that much really.

@Soontobe60 why do you object to that and not private nurseries? In my area pre-prep is similar price to nursery and obviously provides childcare for little kids.

OP, if the school offers the 15h free, then it makes sense you benefit from the funding?

Tax free childcare - different to the early years funding of 15/30 hours - is available until the child turns 12 years old. But be aware you can't put £10,000 in one go, it's split into quarters so save regularly to get the 20% added.

Not every school accepts the funding we don’t. We only start at reception age though. My previous school did. It certainly doesn’t cover the costs associated with independent education, with generally improved pupil to staff ratios in reception.

Tax free childcare up to 12 can only be used for things like holiday clubs and before/after school care at our school - but then again our school doesn't accept the 15/30 funded hours at all so not sure if you can pay for the whole of your reception fees until LO turns 5 or not.