30 hour child care

[alandnid]

Am working full time and my wife registered with agency and she get fewer or no job .and she's goes out for interviews to get a permanent job which has not come yet.We are been told we can't get childcare because she's not getting a salary that meets the threshold. wondering what we can do with two kid under three years

I’m not sure what your question is, if you don’t both meet the earnings threshold then you are not eligible.

When your children are 3 you will be entitled to 15 hours funded childcare (which is universal even if you're not working). From what I understand, the 30 hours funding is only for working parents.

https://www.gov.uk/free-childcare-if-working/check-youre-eligible

one of us met the threshold,while my partner don't get Enough shift to met the threshold.working but not getting a enough shift

Then you’re not eligible.

Exactly this. Is there a reason why your wife can’t look after the 2 children if she isn’t working ? Or is the problem she can’t got to interviews because she has no one to look after the kids?

There isn't anything you can do, until you meet all the criteria. You can either fund the childcare yourselves or your wife can look after them until she secures the hours/salary required. She would be better to look for a perm contract with fixed salary/hours to ensure that childcare is regular and it definitely meets the required threshold for funding, temp or bank work doesn't allow for this. Once they turn 3 then each of them would get 15 hours a week evening she doesn't work.

Surely your wife can look after the children when she is not working. It's kind of the point of the funding.

You can get childcare, you just have to pay for it.

When you both become eligible you can look at the funded hours. Bear in mind 30 hours is term time only, if you spread it over the year it's 21/22 per week.

She needs to increase her hours to meet the threshold …

Why would you expect free childcare if your wife is around to take care of them? Once she gets a permanent job then you’ll be eligible. Not hard to understand!
It’s not long ago that working families only got 15 hours of childcare from the term after the child was 3. You are very lucky that the system has changed!
Society expects everything to be handed out to them for free now.
As you said your wife is only working minimal hours, do you not get working tax credits?

Obviously you both have to meet the criteria to be eligible!! Why would the government hand out free childcare to people who are not working?!!
Your wife needs to look after your children until she gets a full time position and then apply again. Or pay for childcare like everyone else has to!

Can you afford to pay for any amount of childcare on your salary alone so your wife has some time to apply for jobs and go to interviews? Then when she is earning enough the 30 hours funding will kick in and you will get a discount on your childcare fees?

Strange post. It's called the working family funding for a reason. Both you and your wife need to be in paid employment with BOTH of you earning a minimum of £196 per week. If she isn't doing this your not eligible.

Sorry your post seems to have got quite a few judgemental responses. They are correct that you both have to be eligible unfortunately. But I do sympathise - my husband was made redundant out of the blue and luckily he had already met the quota for this 3 month period but my heart sank when I realised we would lose the funding so him being out of work would cost us so much more in childcare..but equally we couldn't cut the nursery because there's a year long waiting list for all providers in my area so he couldn't take a job offer if we withdrew her from childcare to save the money because we'd have no childcare! So for those saying it's for working parents...it doesn't support people trying to get back to work at all!

As long as your wife exceeds the minimum hours or the equivalent wage, she will be eligible so perhaps she could look at some remote roles like virtual assistants / data entry / AI training. That's what we discussed my husband doing if he couldn't find a job immediately. Best of luck! My husband did find a role quickly luckily so there is hope :-)

You should get 15 hours funded if your family receive benefits. No idea how you'd go about that though.

Would your wife consider studying at college or university? This could improve her job prospects and be considered for funding.

If your wife gets a job then you will be eligible for free childcare. If she’s not working she can look after the children.

I think maybe some people live in places with lots of available childcare or maybe just have lots of savings? If you don't have childcare in place you can't start a job or pick up more shifts but if you don't have a job you can't afford childcare indefinitely. Not hard to understand.

My wife have not been able to get a permanent job.She did registered with agency but shift are few.I can see some people been judgemental.some even asking her to go to school and improve are knowledge to get better job.She's a chemistry graduate and a secondary school teacher before leaving to care for the kids and she's already applying now for full time job to get back.

This country has a national teacher shortage. I surprised she can’t find work as a teacher

Roughly where in the country are you. I'm in London and local schools are crying out for science teachers.