Well I'm about to benefit from an effective £8k pay rise. Who says wage inflation is lagging behind RPI?
My son's nursery have confirmed his 30 hours free place from September and that they'll be operating the scheme. I've given them a government code, which needs to be renewed in mid-July.
!!NOTE THAT THE RENEWAL DATE I WAS GIVEN IN MY ORIGINAL GOVERNMENT CHILDCARE ACCOUNT EMAIL HAS MYSTERIOUSLY MOVED FORWARD BY ONE MONTH IN MY ACTUAL CHILDCARE ACCOUNT!! I'm sure they'll send reminders anyway, but still...watch out for that.
My son spends 3 days / 24 hours per week at nursery, but their days are classed as 10.5 hours (0730 - 1800) irrespective of the actual hours spent there! This would mean an additional charge of ~£125 per month, but the nursery have unofficially indicated that they'd waive this for children only doing three days per week \0/
Regarding tax free childcare vs. vouchers, I'll be keeping the vouchers and ignoring tax-free childcare as it's more tax-efficient for my situation, despite what the calculator indicated (as stated by a poster above).