Nursery- Registration and Fees advice

Registering them will depend on the nursery and their policies/procedures but it'll most probably be a form and maybe a small fee. The tax free childcare is easy enough to set up on the government website but you will need a government gateway account. You will also need to register for the funding which is a slightly lengthier process. It is all relatively straightforward as long as you have the info to hand x

The tax free childcare thing tops you up £2 for every £8 you put in to the account once set up for payment directly onto childcare provider - but caps it at a max of £500 every 4 months, at which point you have to reconfirm your details. Once you reconfirm you gain access to the following £500 top up Max cap but you lose access the any of the previous chunk you didn't use up if that makes sense. The pattern of Reconfirmation dates you're in are kinda random and might not line up with when you get paid or when you pay your nursery but if you are spending over £8k a year then it's in your interests to use the full 2k but sometimes that can mean timing your payments carefully into the account to ensure you get the full top ups if that makes sense? Any money of yours in the account left their when you move into the next period will accrue the top up if it hasn't already.

I got caught out first time bc I didn't realize that once I reconfirmed I couldn't get the £75 left of my top up from the last 3 month period, so was eating into the £500 top up for the follo ing four months. It gives you a month window every three months in which to reconfirm.

Also DO NOT forget your security questions for login... It is case sensitive and I lost access bc I forgot and it became like a Month late getting access again bc for some reason my telephone security check when I rang them failed to and then I had to send off notarised copy ID signed by a teacher friend. My nursery were super understanding and didn't fine me but I was so late paying them. Absolute 5h!tshow!

Say If you have to may your nursery say £1249 each month. You might think 1249 divided by 8 =156.10 X2 (because it's 2£ for every 8) = £312.25 top up if you put in 936.75 But when you do it again the next month you'll hit your cap of £500 so it'll only top you up 187.75 (500- 312.25) The third final month when you're due to reconfirm you won't get a top up at all so would have to put in the full £1249 to pay on

So instead you might want to equal out your payments. 1249×3 is 3747. -500 is 3247. Split that equally across three months... Pay in 1082 a month. So you overpay to cover the second and final month.

An essay I know and call me out if my maths are wrong anyone but I had a fiasco to begin with so hope it helps xxx