to think that if you work full time you should be able live comfortably

[cuteboots]

Is this just a really silly idea? Would I be better off going part time?

yes, housing in the UK is vv expensive & many areas of the country are 'overcrowded'. which makes it all a lot harder. the uk has the smallest houses in europe, in an attempt to fit everyone in.

tbh, it would help if people had less kids, but that raises huge ethical issues & there's all the problems of an aging population.

still, i think the op is paying a LOT for childcare, but then, with the hours her cm has her ds, it prevents the cm from having another full time mindee, so i can see why.

we used after school club, which was much cheaper.

Not at all laweasel. Our rent is about £200 below the average rent for the area and less than a small flat in other parts of the city. We only get a small amount of HB a week (less than 1/2 of what our LHA is if we were on full HB). We get a massive amount of tax credits which is what takes it so high.

But yes completely agree with your 2nd paragraph. We were looking in the local museum a while ago adn part of the exhibition was about peoples incomes etc. It said people earned £10 a week and paid rent of £1 per week. Therefore rent was 10% of their weekly wages. For that to be true now we would need to be earning £7,500 a month!

The house I grew up in was recently sold for almost £300,000. My parents sold it 20 years ago for £57,000. No work has been done to it in that time except for the kitchen. My dad was a van driver when he bought it. No van driver could now afford to buy that house!

but mypanda, what were they renting?

Ah I see. When we were on HB we get full tc too, but our rent was at the top end of the allowed bracket for the area so it was about 5k for the six months we got it for. So more than in tc for 1dc.

It's funny, my DH is exactly the same type of engineer as my friend's grandfather. As a young guy with a SAHP and 3 kids he had no trouble buying a 5 bedroom house in a beautiful part of town. Which is worth at least 800k now. DHs wages for the same job but 50 years later couldn't buy a 50% share in our 2 bed terrace a few streets away.

Sympathy for the OP. Childcare cripples me as well despite a decent salary. I have no family any my friends all work so I am totally reliant on professional childcare. The costs for 2 pre-schoolers is over £900 pcm. You'd think when they start school it would be a lot cheaper, but because almost 4 months of the year are school holidays and if you work a typical 9-5 you are paying for after-school care as well, I've worked out that when they are both in school it's still going to cost nearly £600 pcm averaged out over the year. It leaves me worse off than someone on benefits or minimum wage. However, the difference is that by working full-time I significantly increase my chances of progressing in my career and earning a higher salary, which, once the children no longer require childcare, will leave me massively better off.

This is not a dog at anyone personally but a comment on how the cost of living has spiralled out of control. If you earn 11K but take home £30K surely you are working to top up your benefits.

Madness and unsustainable.

Blimey! 11K-30k, you get 19K per year? That includes childcare costs too, surely?

I earn 10k, it's topped up to about 16k (LP, 1 DC) but that includes 80% Childcare element of tax credits, as well as LP element and child element. We aren't entitled to any HB though.

OP YANBU, it is just crazy how the cost of living has spiralled, but incomes have not. We could not survive without Tax Credits, unfortunately, my income would probably cover rent, childcare and I'd only have about £100pm for everything else, including petrol to get to work, food, utilities..I mean our water bill for just 2 people is over £50 pm! And I consider myself quite fortunate, our rent is cheap.

clearly I meant dig and not dog.

Colditz - that was for a 3 bed terraced house about a mile from where I live. I also have a 3 bed terrace. Those same houses currently rent for £775 per month (£25 per month more than mine & £60 per month more than the LHA)

Desperatelyseeking - we couldn't (and still can't) believe it. We are waiting for the letter telling us that we're being overpaid as that amount is ludicrous. I have checked and double checked with all involved and am always being told that the amount is correct.

Unfortunately the jobs just aren't paying a decent amount. DP works his arse off for 40+ hours per week and without the benefits we would only have £2000 a year after paying the rent. Maybe if these companies that make millions of profit each year paid their staff a decent amount there would be no need for families to rely so heavily on benefits.

I agree with your first idea. Anyone shud live well on full time graft

Its good to hear that there are people slogging their guts out to earn £30K while others get that for doing a job worth £11K. Utter madness.

after school club is generally cheaper than one on one care unless it some posh after school club...?
my two dd in after school club from 3.30 to 5.30 and it comes to around £550 per term including three lotsof specific paid for activities (drama, art)

holiday scheme is 13£ full day for first child and 11 for second (at a diff school) so long as i pay in advance and this is in london! they 8 and 10

Hammy - that is very harsh. Cash paid does not equal effort. You get paid around a third more for office jobs compared to restaurant work for eg, but restaurant work is miles harder, and worse hours.

Hammy02 I'm not sure why you think the person earning £11k isn't "slogging their guts out"? Salaries aren't representative of how hard a person works are they? Otherwise nurses would presumably be paid better and pop stars less...

Anyway, my childcare is £1200 a month for two little ones, three days a week. I work four days and my mum has them one day, which is the day I actually earn some money. But I worked out I'd be £37 a month worse off working five days - I think it's because our childcare vouchers would then make up a smaller share of our childcare costs. Does that make sense?

Things are definitely different now. My parents lived very frugally when I was small - I remember my mum going without dinner while my brother and I ate when we were very young. She made all our clothes, we didn't go on holiday until I was a teenager. BUT, they owned their house, and my mum didn't work until we were older.

Hammy - find a job that my DP can do earning £30K a year and he'll do it. It's hardly his fault that his company now only pay minimum wage. It's also not his fault that minimum wage is less than £6 an hour.

My husband is on £6.50 an hour and I am on £6 per hour and we work 70 hours a week. We get £23.5k. That includes childcare and tax credits (dont get hb). You must have loads of kids panda

40+ hours a week at minimum wage is slogging your guts out for not very much money. I agree companies should be paying better wages so people don't rely on TCs etc any more.

panda, you could find your TCs decrease with the recent changes.

cestlavielife, after school clubs are good value. I wish our primary school had one.