Nursery Funded Hours and Tax Relief
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My LO goes term time only. Not sure how it works all year, but pretty sure it's split across the 52 weeks. She goes 18 hours a week, so we pay the difference plus (7.50 each additional hour) £1.50 an hour for funded hours for her lunch and because she attends outside of the funded hours. But each nursery is very different. To get tax free, you need to set up an account with HMRC. Easy to do!
Okay, so with mine the free hours don’t stretch throughout the year and the daily rate is £64 she goes three days and it works like this first day £13.05 second day £38.52 and the 3rd day she goes is full price £64. In term times we can’t use free hours so it’s £64 per day. My daughter is 2 in December but we can’t claim the 30 free hours till september 2025 . I’m not sure on claiming the tax back on childcare but we get 85% back from universal credit. So I pay upfront but then get it back so it works out okay. My eldest nursery spread the hours throughout the year, I preferred that but forgot to ask this before signing up the baby. Worth double checking. I hope this was helpful. xx
You probably already have, but first check if your chosen nursery is part of the scheme to claim 15 free hours 😊 If yes, how the free hours are used depends on various things. If the nursery is open all year round (so including all the normal school holidays - Easter, summer, bank holidays etc), the hours would likely be stretched out. For example, we currently get 15hrs free for our LO - the nursery is open all year round, except Christmas, so for 51 weeks a year it works out more like 11hrs free each week. The free hours may only apply to a certain time in the day too (e.g. between 9am - 3pm), so if going to nursery for a full day from 8am - 6pm, the hours outside this slot may be charged at the full rate. As above, you may also be charged for consumables that they provide - things like food, sudocream, wipes, Calpol, activity supplies and so on! I would definitely email the nursery and ask for a breakdown of the costs for the days you want your LO to go to nursery - I did and found it very helpful! 👍
We spread my LO all year too! So works out at 11 hours pw ☺️ think when goes to 30hrs, it’s 22 pw if all year. Can’t tell you the breakdown of fees to be honest as think depends on each nursery and their charges/ what’s included. Best you ask them directly. Tax free is super helpful! Set up online, you pay money into that account, they then top up 20% then you make the payment to nursery out of that!
My 15 hours are ‘stretched’ as it’s open year round, which works out around 11.25 hours over that week. I get staff discount too as I work at the same nursery so can’t give you rough estimates for daily cost but I also use the government tax free childcare. You pay in money to your online account and for every £8 you pay in, they will ‘top up’ and pay in £2. It’s super handy as can save quite a bit of money x
If your nursery does stretch funding, some don’t. Nurseries determine how they use the funded hours, and almost all will have some kind of consumables charge on top, so very rarely is it actually “free” hours. 30h stretched is usually around 22h a week, so would assume 15h would be somewhere around 11 hours a week. Tax free childcare account set up to pay your fees (gov top up 20%, you pay in £8 they top up £2, up to £500 every 3months ) you don’t claim it back. You can claim 30h from September.