How the pre-school credit is paid

The Pre-School credit is a universal credit paid by DESC to registered pre-school settings for the purpose of supporting early education.

In the event that the registered pre-school setting is unable to provide the pre-school place to the eligible child on a particular day or days due to circumstances beyond their control (for example, due to an outbreak of infectious, communicable illness), the pre-school credit will still be payable to the child day care provider and is therefore not redeemable for additional sessions on another date. In the event of extenuating circumstances, an appeals process is available.

A universal credit of £4,166 is available for each eligible child for the academic year 2022 -2023. The pre-school credit award is allocated on a monthly basis and can be claimed a month in advance. The monthly amounts are outlined below: 

Month	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug
Year-round childcare	£349	£347	£347	£347	£347	£347	£347	£347	£347	£347	£347	£347
Term-time childcare	£415	£415	£415	£282	£415	£415	£415	£282	£415	£415	£282	£0