Anyone know anything about this? I thought that it was a Welsh thing, but apparently not. I’m very confused. From the Cardiff council website it looks like you can only apply to a handful of schools, but there are nurseries all over the place. Is it only certain places? That makes no sense to me. Seems to be that we are enrolling our kid in a school for life not just nursery. I’m not against that but I’m not sure I know enough to choose her whole school career in the next few days.

In Scotland. For 3 and 4 years old you will get 15 hours free nursery school a week.
Any nursery can be used. If your child is in for over 15 hours they will only be charged for the difference

what he said for england too. You get 1/2 the week or 5 sessions and you can use then how you like and where you like.
Perhaps the council website only mentions the council ones?

The wife agrees ^ normally only mornings so 5x3hr sessions for free – i cant wait it means our childminder fee will be near on halved – until no2 comes along that is.

You can get vouchers.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/calcs/ccin.htm

I never got around to sorting it so scared to check the calculator.

So perhaps we’d better phone our local nursery directy then? There are a load of places listed here all over the city but they do seem to be only council ones (ie “community” ones). I’d like to go to the one that’s a short walk away, and not have to drive across town.

There’s some reference to being able to get funding elsewhere if you haven’t got a school within 2 miles.

You can get vouchers.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/calcs/ccin.htm

I never got around to sorting it so scared to check the calculator.

Not all nurseries accept the vouchers. Good savings if they do

This isn’t about the tax relief vouchers, this is about the free mornings thing.

Yip – 5 free sessions a week at any nursery that will take your child.

So.. how did you lot set it up? Called the nurseries direct?

our nursery (England) sort it all out for us, just giving us the forms to sign.

Ours was booked into our nursery from when she was 4 months old – from 2 they run reduced hours but she cant get in till 2 yrs 9 months as some book in from before being born, seriously – we need to pay until she is 3 but then she will go onto free mornings.

This isn’t about the tax relief vouchers, this is about the free mornings thing.

Oh I’m sorry I didn’t realise you only wanted one way to save money.

How do vouchers save money on free stuff? Anyway my wife doesn’t work so I can’t imagine they’d give us a bean.

Of course they don’t but it’s an option if god forbid you wanted to extend your hours or if you couldn’t get into one of the free ones. Sorry for being helpful.

Your wife not working may actually help, we were very limited to the help we got as we both worked so earned too much.

The 15hrs free thing doesn’t necessarily kick off when the child turns 3yrs. It’s dependent on DOB, so sometimes it can be 3yrs 4 months etc. Not the worst deal in the world – but still means, e.g. if your child is born in Sep, that you’ve got to cough up full wack until the New Year.

i have a pdf that describes the funding quite well, but cant seem ti link it.

it’s here, page 7. primary your guide

http://www.leics.gov.uk/index/education/information_about_schools/yourguides.htm

We found a lot of private nurseries were only accepting children if they were full days and that a primary school nursery was the only place that would accept our child for the 15 free hours (despite the guy from the council saying this was against the rules)

Sorry for being helpful

Sorry for sounding rude, I wasn’t intending to be. C’mere, let me give you a hug.

We just didn’t want to have to pay anything. I did look at childcare vouchers from my employer but they still cost.

The whole thing is bloody complicated. We seem to only be saving about £50 a month when ours get the ‘free’ places.

I did look at childcare vouchers from my employer but they still cost.

You mean they cost the employer a tiny admin/commission fee? Won’t they stump up for that? Other than that they cost the Gov, not you.

We seem to only be saving about £50 a month when ours get the ‘free’ places.

Sounds about right what with you being up north an’ all that 🙂

C’mere, let me give you a hug.

Ge’ orfff!

Yeah the vouchers are for discount essentially.

£50pm is £50 better off though it’s not a large amount but it’s not tiny.

No, but it means we aren’t actually getting the ‘free’ places we thought we would – and with twins it is expensive enough – £400 a month at the moment for 1.5 days a week :-0

Mine has just started getting the free hours and it dropped my weekly bill down from 150 to 113. Council had a list of all the nurseries that could provide the free entitlement. We mentioned it to them and they did the rest.
If your company does it, salary sacrifice vouchers will also save you some tax.

Believed you would, there’s not much you get for completely free, especially if you earn a good wage. And yup we paid £250pm for 2 days per week for one child.

Last year you could claim £243/month (pre-tax) if you applied before start of the FY even if you were earning something like £40k+. That changed to something like £124/month, which equates to maybe £50/month in ‘take home’ less than you could have got. Bit of an arse but there you go.

Still – just 1.5 years till we can pack them off to school :-O

Last year you could claim £243/month (pre-tax) if you applied before start of the FY even if you were earning something like £40k+. That changed to something like £124/month, which equates to maybe £50/month in ‘take home’ less than you could have got. Bit of an arse but there you go.

I only set mine up a few months ago and I get £243 a month

I only set mine up a few months ago and I get £243 a month

Are you definitely in the upper earnings threshold (albeit after taking into account certain deductions that are accepted)? I had no joy with any provider I spoke with directly or HMRC. All they could do was backdate the £124s from application date (prob June) to Apr I think.

We’re currently paying £0 and would like to stay that way.. tomorrow I’ll call the local nursery.

Somehow we seem to have to fill in the forms by Monday though. Maybe this is for September entry tho.

Right, apparently Cardiff will only fund you to go to one of the council schools – you can’t go to one nearest your house, which is annoying.

That means we have to get this form in by Monday, which means we just chose our kid’s school using Google Streetview..!

Then there’s the question of Welsh schools – bilingualism is generally accepted to be a Good Thing so we ought to choose one.. I bet we don’t get it though. We’ll see.