Child Benefit / Nursery Funding
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https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit/how-to-claim
@Kristie thank you so much. I'll try to have a look at this. Do you know how the nursery entitlement works? I find the government websites very confusing! Or maybe it's just my brain is a little mush!!!
Nursery funding is for working parents. From 9 months old you are entitled to 15 hours and from 2 years you are entitled to 30 hours. You both have to work that many hours as a minimum however. Hours are only allocated the term after your little one turns that age. So you wouldn’t get yours until 1st September 2025 and you would have to be going back to work by September 30th or earlier. If not, you’d have to wait until 1st January. These hours are term time only, but some nurseries allow you to spread them across the year which is about 11 hours a week. It’s also worth noting some nurseries charge extra for things like food, nappies, activities, and these hours don’t cover that. And the free hours are often not allowed to be used during certain times of the day. So you will never get free childcare essentially. Just the cost of 15 hours deducted.
There is also help with if you arent working as are on benefits, but I don’t know about that one.
@Kristie thank you so much. This makes sense, I'll start exploring
Child tax benefit is based on salary. It’s £25 a week and you can claim it from when they are born until they are 18. If one of you earns more than £50k then it will be less and they adjust it accordingly. That parent will also have to do a self assessment at the end of the tax year to declare all that money and might have to pay some back.