Redundancy and 30 hours free childcare

paulsrose

Hi there,
I've recently been made redundant and my contract ended a couple of weeks ago, and I've got a child in nursery part time using the 30 hours free childcare offer.
I'm confused about what I need to do about this and what my options are now. Key questions are:

1. Do I need to immediately tell the nursery/HMRC/the local authority that I'm no longer working? Or, do I just wait until I am asked to reconfirm eligibility for the 30 hours free childcare and then declare the change in circumstances there? 
2. If I simply have to wait until reconfirmation, can I wait until the latest date possible (I think I get a window of a month when I have to reconfirm) before I do that, in the hope that I can get a new job before I have to reconfirm?
3. If I can wait until reconfirmation, how long will the grace period last and how will I know if I'm eligible? I'm confused by the tables I've found with dates for the grace period which seem to be different in different places.
4. If I have to tell the nursery now, might I have my free hours immediately withdrawn? I really don't get how this grace period works and the information available seems very patchy (mostly designed for childcare providers/local authorities).

Any help/experience with this would be hugely appreciated.

divadee

I have just been through this very scenario and looked online extensively. They way I have read it is 

1) you do not have to tell them until your reconfirmation date. So your child can continue getting the 30 hours funded childcare for this term 

2) leave it till as late as possible to reconfirm or not confirm. I have a start date of the 8th March for a new job (I got made redundant in January) and I need to confirm at the latest by the 15th March. I am waiting until I start and been there for a couple of days and then reconfirming my eligibility. 

3) I didn't look into the grace period myself as I just hoped I would have a new job by then. That was on my to do list if I hadn't got a job in time. 

4) you could give them the heads up as would you change your child's hours if you don't get a job in time for the next terms funding? If you want to change the hours then most places you need to give 4-6 weeks notice of changing them. 

I hope you find something soon, it is such a stressful time, but keep applying and see what happens. If you don't hey anything in time for reconfirmation dates then your child will get the 15 hours funding a week so they can still attend.