Child care costs- how do I work it out please?

[ReRe2021]

Hello.

I want to double check my childcare allowance each month as they’ve gotten it wrong in the past, but I’m not sure how to work it out in terms of the assessment dates. Would you be able to explain how I can calculate across months please?

my assessment period is the 10th - 9th.

Could these payments also please be checked, as due to the way Christmas has fallen, the dates aren’t as usual, I.e it’s normally an entire month but these are part months

my November (1-30) costs were £496

on 22/11 I paid and reported same day £490 for 1-23 December (nursery then shut).

nursery opened 6/01 and on that day I paid and reported £475 for 6-31 January.

for my Dec assessment (10/11 - 9/12) I received £415.02
for my Jan assessment (10/12 - 9/01) I received £357.70

Are these right please? I think the January payment is slightly lower than I was expecting.

But mostly I’d love to know how to work out the cross months, thank you!

[Kate Lamb]

ReRe2021 evening

I am getting slightly different in the calculations

Usually this may be down to the dates etc reported when declaring them

Could you screenshot & show me what you reported for nov, dec & jan & I can take a quick look for you

You should be able to access these via your journal where it says “reported childcare” if you click on it it should show the date reported, costs paid, what dates were covered

[ReRe2021]

Thank you! I’ve attached the pictures. To give context, I pay ahead and in November my little boy changed nurseries, he went to crown house up until the 18 Nov and then started in Ely and Caeura Childrens centre on the 23 Nov. Ely and Caeura sent me their invoice early so paid that before I paid for crown hour as they typically send their invoices just before the new month.

[Kate Lamb]

Fab. Thank you

Can you give me an hour or so & then I will take a look at it. We’ve not long got home so need to sort children out, once in bed I’ll have a look & reply to you

[Kate Lamb]

10th oct-9th nov

300/18 = £16.66

£16.66 x 9 = £150

£150 x 0.85 = £127.50 (1st-9th nov)

£127.50 paid 16th nov

10th nov-9th dec

£16.66 x 9 = £150

£150 x 0.85 = £127.50 (10th-18th nov)

£196 x 0.85 = £166.60 (22nd-30th nov)

£490/31 = £15.80

£15.80 x 9 = £142.25

£142.25 x 0.85 = £120.92 (1st-9th dec)

£127.50 + £166.60 + £120.92 = £415.02 total childcare paid 16th Dec

£15.80 x 22 = £347.74

£347.74 x 0.85 = £295.58 (10th-31st dec)

£475/26 = £18.26

£18.26 x 4 = £73.07

£73.07 x 0.85 = £62.12 (6th-9th jan)

£295.58 + £62.12 = £357.70 total childcare paid 16th jan

[Kate Lamb]

ReRe2021 apologies I’m doing it off my phone so am unable to change my colours & the above will just look like a bunch of numbers

It is correct what you have been paid;

I’ll be better to explain it rather than just look at all those numbers

So your first part is your payment of £300 on 1st nov. This covered 1st-18th
so uc do 300/18 days = daily rate
daily rate x 9 (1st-9th) = childcare
childcare x 0.85 = payment

the remaining 9 days of your invoice were used in the next ap 10th nov-9th dec

Then your payment of £196 covered 22nd-30th nov - all those dates were used in that on ap so thats a straight
invoice x 0.85 = childcare with the other for 10th nov-9th dec

Your next payment £490 covered 1st-31st dec
so again £490/31 x 9 x 0.85 was your first 9 days in ap covered in 10th nov-9th dec

the rest of the days 10th dec-31st dec carried over to ap 10th dec-9th jan.

Your final payment £475 was 6th jan-31st jan so £475/26 which is how many days the invoice covers
then only 4 of them days; 6th,7th,8th,9th are in this ap so only x4 x 0.85

Which is why it seems less

so the remaining for jan 10th-31st will be paid in your feb payment along with childcare covering 1st-9th feb

[Kate Lamb]

They always do;
Payment/invoice amount / days in invoice = daily rate

daily rate x days in ap = childcare

childcare x 0.85 = payment

[ReRe2021]

Hi Kate, thanks so much for checking it, and showing me how they work it out. Much appreciated!!