The cost of childcare

[user1487755366]

I know this has been done to death but the cost of childcare is out of control. I have twin one year olds who go to nursery 3 days a week. It’s killing us and the price is only going up again in April.

When will something be done about this? My job doesn’t cover it and I’ve had to take extra work on out of hours to cover costs. We have no local family support.
I don’t know what this aibu is for but I guess some advice or solidarity would be nice.

The ratio for children goes up when they're 2 so check to see if the rates get reduced then. Government also pays towards it. I think it's up to £2000 per child per year. For us, that help makes a huge difference. In general, twins cost are unfair. I wish there was more support in general for parents of twins.

All the best

I don't understand why we accept the relentless principle that we only subsidise childcare by others.

It makes much more sense from an economic perspective to help parents stay in work - which is good for their own earning (and so tax-paying) power long-term and also creates jobs in childcare. Encouraging people to take prolonged periods out of the workplace reduces their income for decades - usually into retirement. You might think that we should prioritize parents being at home over the economics of it, but it isn't illogical to want to subsidise parents continuing to work rather than staying home just because the child gets cared for either way.

Have you tried a childminder instead of nursery - it seems to work out cheaper.

I don't understand the ridiculous cost as most nursery staff are on minimum wage 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's definitely a job (along with care work) which should be better paid with better working conditions.

Both baby and elderly care costs a fortune.

@2anddone

Childminder of 25 years I charge £4 per hour out if that comes a percentage of electricity, snacks, resources, extra cost of heating, registration fees to OFSTED, insurances, special car insurance, any money for days out/ice creams. I have just had a child move onto another setting as their parent has changed jobs so until September when new ones start on a Monday and Tuesday 9-3 I am working for about £2 per hour and on a Wednesday 9-3 I earn nothing! Parents get the option of using the child tax free payment scheme where government pay 20% of childcare costs from 0-12 years. From 3 years old parents get help with up to 30 hours funded sessions (which comes in at £3.98 per hour here in Norfolk so I lose money when they use that) or some businesses offer childcare vouchers. Yes to the parent it may seem expensive and I will admit some nurseries are but as a childminder trust me we definitely are not making millions!!!....and for those of you who say we are when we have a lot of children our outgoings increase when we have lots so we really aren't!!

That’s awful, are you going to seek a job that actually pays? That’s not a viable business. People providing childcare should be paid more than the poverty wage that is the bare minimum wage, yet people who chose to have a kid think they should be paid less than the legal minimum wage, and that the giver should pay for their kids? If a childcare provider is doing say, 8 hours a day, they should be getting at least £70, the on top of that, stuff like rent, insurance, food, equipment on top of that, so childcare should cost well above £70 a day? If it’s not, then someone already is being shafted. Probably the poverty wage workers.

*government

It's a problem for any work where each individual needs a lot of hours of work - it's the same with care for the elderly. People are shocked that a care home costs £1000 a week, but that's for 24hr care so it works out as less than £6 an hour, for care, board, food. So in one way that's a bargain, but not in a way that's helpful if you don't have £52k a year. Similarly the nursery I use works out as £6.50 an hour, which is really cheap compared to really any other service. It's about a tenth of what I pay my hairdresser per hour. But I don't employ my hairdresser for 25 hours a week. That £6.50 an hour works out to over £16k a year for a full-time place.

It's a really difficult position because childcare workers are clearly very unpaid for the vital, hard work they do. But it really doesn't feel like the market can support prices going much higher. Without more government subsidy it's increasingly difficult - which is why this is the case: www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/article/sharp-rise-in-number-of-nurseries-making-a-loss-survey. People assume nurseries make huge profits because parents pay so much and the staff are so low-paid; they assume someone is creaming off the difference. But there mostly isn't a profit to cream off.

You’ll be in the phase of short-term pain with twins. I’d guess you’ll have 2 years of high expense then a further year of subsidised care. While it’s hard now, you may well find things easier childcare wise later on just because they’ll be in the same place. Every holiday we have one in nursery and one in camp in opposite ends of town. Overall you may pay less with twins because of sibling discounts but it will feel painful because the high costs will be all at once.

We were very lucky financially as the initial lockdown coincided with the period both of ours would have been in nursery so we escaped every paying double fees.

Seriously consider moving to a childminder.
Yes they are settled but they will also settle with childminder.
Our CM was 4.50 an hour and that included meals and nappies etc we never had to provide anything extra .... except in summer we gave a bit extra for ice creams on day trips!
I only worked 3 days a week and once the free funding kicked in our child care bills were Zero!!

@NowEvenBetter I totally agree my 'school hour wage' is absolutely atrocious atm. The only reason I am able to make ends meet is because of the amount of wrap around care children I have each day which takes me to an ok daily wage. I can have 6 children which means the hour before and after school I am on £24 per hour, if I had 3 during the school day (as I am allowed 3 under 5) that would be £12 per hour 9-3 which would make a good daily wage (obviously before all of my expenses are deducted). This should hopefully pick up in September when my new children start.

I understand some people thinking childcare is expensive but a 3 year old child who attends 45 hours a week in my childminding setting would only cost the parents £60 per week as the government would (under)fund 30 hours of the care...personally I think the parents using a childminder rather than a nursery with so many large overheads are getting a bargain!

We didn't have twins and the only way we managed was both me and dp compressing our hours and me working every weekend. We didn't see each other much for a few years!

It is ridiculous. In the end we coped with it by moving abroad 😬 now pay £200 a month total for full time nursery for two and wraparound childcare for school age child. Sorry, not much practical help but I agree with you that it's awful how expensive it is in the UK.

I live in london and our nursery fees for our two year old are insane. I’m having our second next month. Both myself and husband are reasonable earners but 2 in nursery will be very hard for us. How does anyone afford it???

Solidarity!

The cost is crazy, even with 30 funded hours. I worked FT until DS started school, now I’m pregnant with our second we worked out we’re better off financially with me not working, as nursery fees on top of wraparound school care and travel fees amount to more than I earn!

It's sad to say but this is why I didn't return to work. The cost was more than my salary. Plus the extra fuel to go via nursery. Then added parking where as before I'd bus but wouldn't manage the timings with a nursery. It would be a deficit of around 250 out of the household pot a month compared to being a sahm.

I’ve always said that childcare should be taken out from gross salary then the person be taxed on remainder

Our daughter goes to nursery 3 days a week and has done since she was 6 months old. We're lucky grandparents have her for the other 2 days. She is 11 months old.

The main argument between myself and my husband is money and it stresses both of us out. We're just thinking of what we can spend the money on when we no longer pay for childcare!

I hear you, twin childcare is a nightmare, it's so much better when they get to 3 and the free childcare kick in but that 2 years at the end of maternity is brutal. I gave up work Tbh it wasn't worth it, I went back just before their 3rd birthday and got a job 100% WFH which has really helped xx

I spent most of my adult life in a large city in North America where the cost of full time daycare is around 2.5k/child per month (and many of my friends paid more than that out of necessity!) There’s no such thing as free hours either. I had 2 coworkers who left work when they had twins, and our managers seemed shocked both times, but I have no idea how a lot of people would cope with a 60k+/year childcare bill.

You do the best you can, just keep going for a bit longer it does get easier. Try to stay in work it's not just the salary, the pension contributions are vital for your future.