Childcare hours.
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There’s nothing you can do. It’s the rules and always has been about it being the term after you can start claiming.
Yep. That is correct. It’s the term after they turn 9months. But, on a positive, I think it’s going up to 30hours free from sept - it’s only 15 currently.
We’re putting my son in for 3 days a week instead of 4 until August/September and just having to budget better for the few months really. It is shit though x
It's also unlikely to be completely free and you'll probably be charged consumables as the funding essentially short changes childcare provisions otherwise! For example we will have the funded hours cover all of our hours but pay £5 a day for consumables like food, bus tickets for trips etc
My lo is starting in July and we just have to pay for July and August until the funding kicks in
Just be warned about the term ‘free’. It’s funded not free. My daughters are 3 and 6 months. Our 3 year old has the 30 funded hours and attends 3 days a week and we still pay £505 a month 🥴 you will likely still need to cover some hours and consumables on top
The funding comes into affect in the next term which in your case starts September. My lo was 9 months in September but after the cut off so funding started January. We just managed to scrape by but I wish I'd have just taken the rest of the year off. If you have to work and put lo in childcare make sure to use tax free as it's really does help