Gill Smith, who runs Gooseberry Bush nursery in Camborne, said that although these problems do not threaten the sustainability of the 80-place facility, it is 'on the tightest budget in 16 years' because of the soaring outstanding fees.
She has called in a debt collector but is not hopeful of recovering money, 'because people often disappear off the face of the earth' once they have acquired the nursery's registration number, built up debts and then used the childcare element of the tax credit to pay for other things.
She said that in the past, Government ministers have rejected pleas for supply-side funding to providers, arguing that money had to be passed through the tax system to parents.
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