MSE News: '30 hours funded childcare' – what you can and can't be charged for as rules clarified

MSE_Abby

If you're a parent in England using the '15 or 30 hours of funded' childcare scheme, you can't be FORCED to pay for extras, the Government has clarified. Its updated guidance states that you should only have to pay for genuinely optional extras, and says you shouldn't lose your child's nursery place if you opt out of these…

Read the full story:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2026/02/childcare-extra-costs-update/

If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.

Maddie

This is also impacting my universal credit claims, despite no mention of it in the guidance for universal credit claimants.

D0rsetD4d

None of the points highlighted in this article have changed since the guidance issued in February 2025 which was already applicable from April '25. The main changes in this guidance seem to be removal of reference to Jan '26 deadlines for itemising invoices and publishing additional charges online, as these should after all now be implemented.

While the summary of what is and isn't chargeable, albeit a year late, is useful. Of far greater use would be an analysis of what this means for parents with regards to the interaction of the guidance with existing legislation. The itemisation point in particular seems to have been introduced to bring CRA 2015 into effect for parents, where Nurseries attempt to charge unreasonable/unjustifiable/inapplicable additional charges.

Erynd

My daughter is due to start nursery in September, and we've already paid a non-refundable deposit. After reading this article, I queried it with the nursery. They told me the deposit is because her funded hours are being stretched across 51 weeks.

The thing is, this particular nursery doesn't offer a term-time-only option, so stretching the funded hours wasn't actually our choice. When I called, they said some of their other nurseries (it's a chain) do offer term-time-only places, and parents at those settings wouldn't have to pay the non-refundable deposit.

Does anyone know if that is allowed under the clarified rules? It doesn't seem right that whether you have to pay a deposit depends on which branch you attend, especially when you weren't given the option to take the funding term time only. Thank you!

sheramber

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82055940#Comment_82055940

from the MSE link above

Got a problem? If issues are not resolved by the childcare provider, you can complain to your local authority, which oversees funded childcare places and has the power to investigate charging practices, require corrections, recover funding paid incorrectly and, where problems persist, remove providers from the funded system.