Nursery fees - am I being scammed?

I haven’t done the maths here, but you only get about 11 hrs free if you choose to send your LO all year round ( including half terms). It’s only 15 hrs a week if you send your LO term time only.

And yes it’s a bloody scam. Some of my local nurseries charges £82 per day

Yeah I’ve heard that too but seems like my nursery are giving me the free hours and then charging me double on the next day so they’re not free at all. Surely I can’t be only saving £6 a month 😳

The most expensive nurseries here charge £10 extra per hour on the days which are not fully covered by the funding, £12 is crazy when they are £63 per day. Have you considered a childminder? That’s what I’ve done, and the extra hours are £6

My nursery use the funded hours for when she isn’t there! She goes 8am-3.30/4pm
But they use the hours their whole opening duration 7-6.30 :( so 15 funded hours only stretches to just over 1 day a week 38 weeks of the year

That is a lot, my daughter is going to start going one morning per week (3 hours) which will be free anyway as we can have 15 free. But it would only be £5 per hour (£15 per session). It’s a school nursery.

My nursery charges £85 per day. I send my LB 3 days per week, full time as opposed to term time only. They don't charge any additional fees (and check if your nursery are because soon no nursery is allowed to, but I don't know when that takes effect). With my 11hrs funded per week my monthly bill is £624 and odd pence per month, so to me yours doesn't seem right x

When we asked about the fees and charges as our first bill wasn’t as we expected we asked for a full breakdown and our child minder sat down with us and explained everything to us, maybe ask your setting to do the same?

Nothing is free, the hours are funded so likelihood is you’re paying a ‘top up’ for the money they’re actually loosing as a business by accepting your funding.

That’s crazy. I rang up another nursery earlier who charge £72.50 a day plus £9.50 for meals which is a whole lot more expensive than the current nursery my LO is at. However after their funded calculations it works out £300 a month cheaper? It’s all so bizarre to me.

It’s all such a scam. The free hours aren’t free they’re funded. When they go from two to three the funding available is less. So my son when he was 2 did 2 days a week and it cost us around 500 per month. When he turned three he went up to 3 days, and from 15 to 30 funded hours. So my maths way: if he’s getting 15 free hours for 22 hours the 500 was about 6 hours per week. So for 30 free hours and 33 hours a week in nursery we should be paying about half? No. Our fees have more than doubled. For one extra, with more free hours.

Crikey that's crazy!! My little one goes two days a week (term time only), he does 8:30-4:30 and the cost is per hour (+ £2.50 per day for lunch). I think our last monthly invoice was £17.50....

I use my hours through the year, works out the Monday is funded, I do pay the add on charge, mines £6 per every funded day. Some nurseries I’ve seen charge £30 per funded day. My bill is £500 just under with 10.5h per week funded, so the Monday. And my son does Monday - Wednesday.

I’d ask to see the breakdown or invoice. Find out if you’re paying the add on fee and how much it is?

My daughter goes 2 days per week (20 hours) all year round so the funded hours are stretched. We pay £450 per month x

Sounds about right. We pay £58 per day and we use the funding all year round so we only get about 12 hours per week. Our invoice is usually about £790 per month but we pay by the tax free account so we pay 20% less out of pocket. They can charge for meals on the funded hours if they want to because the funding only covers their basic costs. Employers NI is going up a lot so they need to pay the staff a lot more which the funding doesn’t cover etc so it’s a lot.

how many days a week does your LO go nursery and is that for full days? X

it’s extortionate. I have 2 under 2 as well so return to work in November 2025. Dreading the double cost 😥

that figure of £624 sounds about right to me. That’s what I was expecting for my LO but was £200 worse off 😅

I’ve requested a breakdown but the manager is so difficult to get hold of. Hopefully I’ll get some clarity next week. I have two under two so the cost x2 is sickening

She goes for 4 full days per week. We have all meals included even on funded days but have to provide nappies and wipes. I pay about £600 after the tax reduction

wow that’s a good price. That’s what I was hoping for 😅

It’s a really good nursery but I know some around here that charge more and some that charge less. My sister sends her youngest to a nursery that is cheaper per day but they charge for Xmas week when they close and bank holidays. Ours don’t charge bank holidays or Xmas week. Some provide nappies etc others don’t so it varies.

Just to add to that as well, my LB gets 3 meals included each day, nappies, wipes suncream etc.
I was at a different nursery for 3m and they charged £75.25 a day with 2 meals and no nappies and I had to pay a £1.25ph surcharge on the funded hours for meals etc. Then an hourly rate for any hours not covered by the funding. That was £614 per month x

thanks for the breakdown. I’ll definitely be discussing a breakdown with my nursery x

Where abouts are you? The nursery I work at and take my little boy to is £92 a day which is around the average of where we are! (Letchworth)

What do your fees include? X

My nursery is £15 a day for food and supplies on top of the funded hours! ☹️

My daughter goes to nursery 3 days a week. 15 hours "free" our bill is up and down but always around the £500 mark.