Orange Day Nursery
Help with Fees
There are a few ways to get help with fees. Please explore each option and see which ones are applicable to you.
Funded hours
Depending on the age of your child and if you meet the eligibility criteria.
For children aged 9 months to 3 years old you need to check your eligibility (www.childcarechoices.gov.uk). If are eligible you will need to apply for an eligibility code and provide it to us.
All 3 and 4 year old children are entitled to 15 hours of funded childcare regardless of parents income levels, if they have not received funded hours before they turn 3. If you have accessed funded hours before you will continue receiving 30 hours a week of funded childcare until you leave us for school.
Some 2 year olds may be eligible for funded childcare. They may be eligible if they receive certain means tested benefits, etc. You can read more about the qualifying criteria here: gov.uk/ help-with-childcare-costs/free-childcare-2-year-olds.
Government funding doesn’t cover all the costs. That’s why we may ask you to contribute towards the other essentials and extras, like meals, toiletries and enhanced activities like Music & Dance and Football which makes Orange Day Nursery so special.
Government funded hours only apply to term time (38 weeks); we at Orange Day Nursery stretch hours over the year by term. We make the application for all funded hours.
Tax free childcare
You can use this scheme in addition to the funded hours. Rules for TFC are similar to those of the 30 hours funding, for example you (and your partner) need to be working and earning more than national minimum wage but less than £100,000 a year. If you’ve checked your eligibility and decided that the TFC scheme is right for you and your family, you can apply in about 20 minutes.
You’ll need your NI number (or if you’re self-employed your Unique Taxpayer Reference) and if you have a partner you’ll need theirs too. You can’t use TFC if you’re already claiming Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, or Universal Credit. So, if you applied for Tax-Free Childcare and were accepted, your Working Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit would stop at once and you wouldn’t be able to receive them again.
How does it work?
You open an online account through the government website which you use to pay for your childcare. For every 80p you pay in, the government will top up an extra 20p. So, for every pound you pay for your childcare, you’re getting a 20% contribution from the government: this is equivalent of the tax most people pay – 20% – which is how the scheme got its name.
The government will top up the account with 20% of childcare costs up to a total of £10,000 – the equivalent of up to £2,000 support per child, per year (or £4,000 for disabled children).
The scheme covers all your children, including adopted children, provided they live with you and are under the age of 12 years.
Workplace Nursery
To save further on childcare costs ask your employer if they will participate in the scheme. The scheme benefits employers, employees and nurseries.
Any children up to the age of 5 can be covered by the Workplace Nursery Scheme. Your average fees must be over £1,000 per month to benefit from this scheme but there is no maximum fees that you can save Tax and NI on.
The Tax and NI savings are on the full amount of your nursery fees, savings of between 28% and 47% can be achieved.
If your monthly nursery fees are £1,000, you can save around £4,150 per year as a higher rate tax payer and over £2,250 as a basic rate tax payer.
We can provide Workplace Nursery even if you have Tax Free Childcare.
We at Orange have teamed up with leading workplace nursery administrators like Enjoy Benefits, TEDS and Velomatch who administer the schemes for us and employers.
