Question about funding (Scotland)

[Kibble29]

So my child turned 3 in December, funding was confirmed for January onwards.

I got my invoice for January at the end of December and it was for full payment. I contacted the nursery to query, and they told me to pay the full month of January because the nursery will receive the funding from the council in February.

The funding will show in February, but will apparently be backdated to cover January. This will then put my account in credit, they say.

Does this sound right? I thought I understood it all, but apparently I don’t!

Morning. Might get more responses if you move this to Scotsnet? (Scots parent here but I can't remember what happened with nursery invoices at this stage).

It’s been a few years since my kids have been in nursery, but from what I remember the council money used to come in 3 instalments and you continue to pay the nursery as normal but then get it reimbursed.

From what I remember from 6 years ago we used to get cheques from the private nursery. Then with the younger they reduced the monthly payment when the funding came in. It looks like your nursery does credits. What happens could well depend on council and nursery. Maybe if you say your area someone with more recent knowledge can give their opinion. But it doesn’t sound alarming to get credit.

Thanks, I’ve asked MN to move it over. 😊

Yeah, it seems really complex. I thought it would be a case of the council giving the money to the nursery, and then sending me a bill for the additional hours that aren’t covered by funding.

I’ll maybe need to wait and see what this month’s invoice is like, then it’ll maybe fall into a pattern. I had the money I thought I was saving already earmarked for other nice spending so you can imagine my disappointment. 😂

Yes that sounds correct. Funding is from the term after their 3rd birthday. For example my son was 3 in June bit we continued to be billed untill the new term (schools returning) mid August.

It's a real pain and it's been a few years for me too but I remember the disappointment that it was retrospective/late to arrive!

I’m pretty sure I remember that the council are ridiculously slow to pay so parents have to pay at first to cover the gap otherwise the nurseries would go bankrupt. Once they pay you’ll be in credit which should then cover the first month of the next installment and so on. If you don’t use any additional hours you’ll need to sort it out the term before you leave.

Yeah, so that’s why I was expecting it to come in January. As my child was 3 in December, the next term begins in January.

I think that’s what the nursery were saying. That the January funding actually comes to them in February, so I pay now then sort of get it back moving forward.

It was a disappointment, yeah lol! Especially with it being January, I was all “oh that’s an extra bit of money for after Christmas, perfect timing!” 😅

Totally sucks!

As has already been said, the nursery won't receive the funding until a number of weeks into the term but in the meantime it needs to pay its staff and bills. This has always been the way of it. They don't pay out immediately because they need to ensure that they are paying out for the correct children.

Thanks everyone! 😍

At least you had a well timed child. A later March birthday doesn't qualify until August!

Hopefully the extras you had planned will be okay in a month or so but in the midst of the freezing weather I can understand the need to want it now.