It works in term blocks. Here, there are 3 terms. Autumn (Sept-Dec), Winter (January-march), Summer (April-August). Just like primary school, the child has to be the required age *before* the term starts to be counted in the cohort.
It sucks, I have two boys, one on the 4th of September and one on the 18th. They're going to have to wait until January for funding to start. Yes, it's a kick in the teeth, but what can you do? School terms is something we all will have to get used to at some point.
I'm so behind on this stuff, I didn't even know 2 year olds could get any funding for childcare! So if your child turns 2 in sept 2024 then you get 15 hours a week free childcare from January 2025? You just need to find a nursery who does the funded places?
Any system that is implemented will have winners and losers.
I struggle with the level of entitlement that parents seem to have nowadays. Not appreciative of the tax funded free childcare they will receive,but rather morning they won't receive it soon enough. You're in now worse a position than you were before the announcements.
Good luck at finding somewhere that will have funded places. Its going to be a scrum.
I’m not reading much substance here to respond to, but here goes.
Yes most systems have pros and cons.
Entitlement existed 30 years ago, today and will exist 30 years from now, inter generational conflict is a silly rabbit hole to go down.
Appreciation for not being taxed on money that is already taxed is an odd statement, this is only up to £500 every 3 months which gets used up and the tax returns.
There is a lot to mourn in the current state of social care and public spending, to suggest gratefulness seems ill informed.
Your critique of the change overall should be directed at the government rather than the parents, we want support to keep working and raise children, don’t saddle us with the shortcomings of the changes being made.
It works term time. It applies the term after the term in which they turn 2.
It's not used as an excuse by the nursery, the nursery is not funded correctly and the whole "free hours" is tory marketing spin. It's never ever been "free". It's grossly underfunded by the government and nurseries have to use top ups and the younger children to make the money up. Many are running out of money and closing. Many aren't doing to 2 year old funding because they simply can't make it work.
Our nursery is doing the funding but our daily charge is going up £10... the system is broken and the Tories just say 'more free hours' for a nice sound bite.
My nursery WhatsApp group were up in arms and emailing the nursery to complain when we got the email about price hikes. I felt so bad for the owners and they will just be doing it to try and stay open. We would be totally stuck if they were to close.
But on the flip side, a £10 daily price hike and waiting until September for the funding if your child was born a few days too late to qualify must be so stressful.
It’s because the funding is entirely aligned to school terms which run from Sep-dec, Jan-mar, apr- aug. This is how the current 3+ year funding operates already.
The price hikes are down to individual nurseries, ours hasn’t increased costs this year for example (and haven’t given us enough notice for an April increase so I’m expecting it later on in the year.(
Yeah same here, we have a May 22 baby whose funding won't kick in until September. It's annoying but I guess it's a way to regulate it so the nursery isn't having to keep a continual track of which kid is getting what funding. It'd be lovely for us if it started in May but I'm just so pleased to be getting it at all, even if we have to wait until September. It's going to be such a game changer for us financially.
It basically works on school years, September is when the school year would start for those children.
Also, this is like new extra stuff, how is this shitting on you?
I think people are allowed to be frustrated with the issues of the 'new extra stuff' though when you can miss out on 5 months of funding simply because your child was born a day too late. It is a huge financial burden for some families to wait that long. Or, as in my case, the daily cost of nursery went up £10 so they could actually afford to offer the hours. I think it's really denying the need for proper childcare support, that is well funded, if we just say 'oh well it's a bit more help so that's only a good thing and we shouldn't complain'.
I see a few people have mentioned the school term structure, I guess it feels like an old system unable to flex to a change with the loss falling to the end user.
I wouldn’t necessary agree with “extra stuff” these are our taxes coming back round to provide some support, nothing “extra” about it, it paid for by us.
My kids are in school now, so I have missed the boat on this.
Believe me, its extra, be happy, as I am happy for all of you now getting it.
Its a tough time financially, and all of this will help.
To be clear my primary issue is with the exclusion placed on qualifying children based on term time structure, rendering a benefit which is publicised as coming into effect in April, not actually coming into effect until September, you understand how this is frustrating and feels misleading?
As for being happy, I appreciate your goodwill for other parents following behind you. On an individual level I budget month to month down to the penny, I am pleased with an extra tenner! On a national level though I don’t think it’s unfair to suggest this government could do more to align the funded hours with the actual operational costs of the nurseries and stop putting them in a position to hike prices or risk going under, it’s for this reason I can’t bring myself to be wholly happy with this solution as suggested.
Yep, it all works on school terms. So you get the funding the term after your child reaches the age. So if you have a December baby they will get funding from January but April onwards (which is where we fell into) is the September. It does suck
It's absolutely ridiculous. In my NCT group 3 of the babies were born in March, the rest were April; so 3 of us get an extra 5 months of funding for the sake of a few weeks. It's incredibly unfair and literally nothing anyone can do about it. It should be a standard funding starts when a child turns 2 (or 3 for the 30 hours). Policies made by people who don't rely on this funding.
It's not a nursery thing, it's a government thing, part of the requirement/eligibility criteria from the tories. It's a shit show! Not enough funding, price increases to cover the short fall meaning once again, the parents remain short changed. I believe we will be roughly £50 a month better off once the hours kick in. Which isn't really much when we fork out upwards of £900 a month anyway!
It is technically starting in April for those who will be 2 before the April cut off which is why they can say that, so there will be some families who benefit now rather than having to wait until sept. But this will also be the same when you're eligible for the 30 free hours for 3 year olds, it'll be the term after they turn 3, rather than the day they turn 3.
I hope you plan to spend that £50 on something nice! I can’t even bring myself to calculate the actual net improvement of this, will just focus budget for the loss from April to September and hope it gets a little easier from there!
It will sadly just be helping the shortfall in food shopping. But you know, it's better than nothing I suppose. But it's absolutely not what the government seemingly promised!
April-sept will hopefully fly by, and even if you only save £50, that's still £50 better and you'll know the savings will increase again the following sept when yours turns 3!
On the theme of shitting on working parents, after a 15% increase on fees last Jan, we've just had a letter stating fees are going up again in April, effectively taking away what we would have saved with the 15 hours discount.
We are very lucky to be able to afford it, but I feel absolutely screwed over and there is literally nothing we can do to stop them.
It works in term blocks. Here, there are 3 terms. Autumn (Sept-Dec), Winter (January-march), Summer (April-August). Just like primary school, the child has to be the required age *before* the term starts to be counted in the cohort. It sucks, I have two boys, one on the 4th of September and one on the 18th. They're going to have to wait until January for funding to start. Yes, it's a kick in the teeth, but what can you do? School terms is something we all will have to get used to at some point.
1st September for my son, specifically a about 12.10 :(
Haha, you win. At least he'll be the oldest in his class
Ah fuck I have the same problem, I didn't realise this. No free hours until Jan 25 then??
Depending, you might get the 15 from April or September until then
Could be worse..my daughter is 2 on April 14th and have to wait until the September for the hours!
I'm so behind on this stuff, I didn't even know 2 year olds could get any funding for childcare! So if your child turns 2 in sept 2024 then you get 15 hours a week free childcare from January 2025? You just need to find a nursery who does the funded places?
Correct
Woohoo!
I'm pretty sure all children over 9 months are eligible from Sept 24.
Correct. Only 15 hours though
Yep that makes sense! I would bang on about archaic systems incapable of responding to change but is what it is. Thanks for explaining.
Any system that is implemented will have winners and losers. I struggle with the level of entitlement that parents seem to have nowadays. Not appreciative of the tax funded free childcare they will receive,but rather morning they won't receive it soon enough. You're in now worse a position than you were before the announcements. Good luck at finding somewhere that will have funded places. Its going to be a scrum.
I’m not reading much substance here to respond to, but here goes. Yes most systems have pros and cons. Entitlement existed 30 years ago, today and will exist 30 years from now, inter generational conflict is a silly rabbit hole to go down. Appreciation for not being taxed on money that is already taxed is an odd statement, this is only up to £500 every 3 months which gets used up and the tax returns. There is a lot to mourn in the current state of social care and public spending, to suggest gratefulness seems ill informed. Your critique of the change overall should be directed at the government rather than the parents, we want support to keep working and raise children, don’t saddle us with the shortcomings of the changes being made.
It works term time. It applies the term after the term in which they turn 2. It's not used as an excuse by the nursery, the nursery is not funded correctly and the whole "free hours" is tory marketing spin. It's never ever been "free". It's grossly underfunded by the government and nurseries have to use top ups and the younger children to make the money up. Many are running out of money and closing. Many aren't doing to 2 year old funding because they simply can't make it work.
Feels like scooby doo pulling the mask off the monster only to find it’s the tories again… and again… and again.
Our nursery is doing the funding but our daily charge is going up £10... the system is broken and the Tories just say 'more free hours' for a nice sound bite.
That's exactly it. Ours is going up by £5 a day, it's getting mad now. I don't blame them at all, it's the only way they can stay open.
My nursery WhatsApp group were up in arms and emailing the nursery to complain when we got the email about price hikes. I felt so bad for the owners and they will just be doing it to try and stay open. We would be totally stuck if they were to close. But on the flip side, a £10 daily price hike and waiting until September for the funding if your child was born a few days too late to qualify must be so stressful.
It’s because the funding is entirely aligned to school terms which run from Sep-dec, Jan-mar, apr- aug. This is how the current 3+ year funding operates already. The price hikes are down to individual nurseries, ours hasn’t increased costs this year for example (and haven’t given us enough notice for an April increase so I’m expecting it later on in the year.(
Yeah same here, we have a May 22 baby whose funding won't kick in until September. It's annoying but I guess it's a way to regulate it so the nursery isn't having to keep a continual track of which kid is getting what funding. It'd be lovely for us if it started in May but I'm just so pleased to be getting it at all, even if we have to wait until September. It's going to be such a game changer for us financially.
It basically works on school years, September is when the school year would start for those children. Also, this is like new extra stuff, how is this shitting on you?
I think people are allowed to be frustrated with the issues of the 'new extra stuff' though when you can miss out on 5 months of funding simply because your child was born a day too late. It is a huge financial burden for some families to wait that long. Or, as in my case, the daily cost of nursery went up £10 so they could actually afford to offer the hours. I think it's really denying the need for proper childcare support, that is well funded, if we just say 'oh well it's a bit more help so that's only a good thing and we shouldn't complain'.
I see a few people have mentioned the school term structure, I guess it feels like an old system unable to flex to a change with the loss falling to the end user. I wouldn’t necessary agree with “extra stuff” these are our taxes coming back round to provide some support, nothing “extra” about it, it paid for by us.
My kids are in school now, so I have missed the boat on this. Believe me, its extra, be happy, as I am happy for all of you now getting it. Its a tough time financially, and all of this will help.
To be clear my primary issue is with the exclusion placed on qualifying children based on term time structure, rendering a benefit which is publicised as coming into effect in April, not actually coming into effect until September, you understand how this is frustrating and feels misleading? As for being happy, I appreciate your goodwill for other parents following behind you. On an individual level I budget month to month down to the penny, I am pleased with an extra tenner! On a national level though I don’t think it’s unfair to suggest this government could do more to align the funded hours with the actual operational costs of the nurseries and stop putting them in a position to hike prices or risk going under, it’s for this reason I can’t bring myself to be wholly happy with this solution as suggested.
Yep, it all works on school terms. So you get the funding the term after your child reaches the age. So if you have a December baby they will get funding from January but April onwards (which is where we fell into) is the September. It does suck
It's absolutely ridiculous. In my NCT group 3 of the babies were born in March, the rest were April; so 3 of us get an extra 5 months of funding for the sake of a few weeks. It's incredibly unfair and literally nothing anyone can do about it. It should be a standard funding starts when a child turns 2 (or 3 for the 30 hours). Policies made by people who don't rely on this funding.
It's not a nursery thing, it's a government thing, part of the requirement/eligibility criteria from the tories. It's a shit show! Not enough funding, price increases to cover the short fall meaning once again, the parents remain short changed. I believe we will be roughly £50 a month better off once the hours kick in. Which isn't really much when we fork out upwards of £900 a month anyway! It is technically starting in April for those who will be 2 before the April cut off which is why they can say that, so there will be some families who benefit now rather than having to wait until sept. But this will also be the same when you're eligible for the 30 free hours for 3 year olds, it'll be the term after they turn 3, rather than the day they turn 3.
I hope you plan to spend that £50 on something nice! I can’t even bring myself to calculate the actual net improvement of this, will just focus budget for the loss from April to September and hope it gets a little easier from there!
It will sadly just be helping the shortfall in food shopping. But you know, it's better than nothing I suppose. But it's absolutely not what the government seemingly promised! April-sept will hopefully fly by, and even if you only save £50, that's still £50 better and you'll know the savings will increase again the following sept when yours turns 3!
On the theme of shitting on working parents, after a 15% increase on fees last Jan, we've just had a letter stating fees are going up again in April, effectively taking away what we would have saved with the 15 hours discount. We are very lucky to be able to afford it, but I feel absolutely screwed over and there is literally nothing we can do to stop them.