To be pissed off at the new tax free childcare

[childcarechallenge]

NC for this.

We have two DC in childcare and live in London. I'm starting a new job next month and my salary is 48K, after tax, student loan, childcare costs and tube to work plus a few other generally working expenses (clothes etc) I've worked out that I will take home less than £200 a month.

DH earns a good salary which is good because we almost completely rely on his salary for rent, bills etc. He just received a large bonus which pushes him over 100K which is the new limit for the new tax free childcare scheme from the government.

Essentially, between 100K and 120K after tax, student loan, the loss of his "tax free allowance" which is clawed back over 100K, and the fact that we will not be able to claim £4000 back on our childcare because he is no longer under 100K (This applies to BOTH of us because of his salary) means that of that £20K we are actually only £1800 better off. AIBU to think that this is complete robbery - DH works extremely hard, very long hours (sometimes 70 hour weeks) in a high stress environment and the government seem to take an obscene amount of his salary.

We have an opportunity coming up to move to a lower tax country in a year or so with his job and this just makes me really want to take it, AIBU?

ODFOD frog

Also my DP is a manager of a fast food chain and works 70hour weeks (the are open 24hours) your DH is not the busiest man in the world !

And he is constantly on his feet and he comes away with pennies! Yet we've managed to do all the growed up things! By saving and planning and having pants with holes in them for a wee while

OP my first comment was to one posted by MontysTiredMummy because I think we have to try to keep tabs on the language that has been used and keep in perspective any quoted figures
we all know statistics can be easily misinterpretted

I somehow feel that the likes of your DH has been sacrificed to keep the 300K 150K+ earners happy

YABU complaining and should think yourselves lucky to be so well paid and if you dont like it go do some tax planning. Put everything over £100k into your pension pot. Yes you are a net contributor - but someone has to be.

FWIW so am I - but I dont begrudge paying my taxes as I am lucky - and it is luck - to be in a high paid profession

What do you do that has 70 hour weeks and half the salary?

Teachers get less than half of that but can easily work near those hours.

What do you do that has 70 hour weeks and half the salary?

Gratuitously butting in here to give a example - I used to be a research scientist at a university. 70 hour weeks aren't uncommon and most earn less than 40k a year before tax (overtime is unpaid). New starters can be on less than 30k. And that's after 7-10 years of university to get at least a BSc and PhD.

Wow Frogmella that's a bit harsh... Lots of mothers work.

Waitrose Do you just have a problem with people earning high salaries? It's not luck of the draw at all. DH is very smart, worked v hard at (a comprehensive) school, got a place at a good uni on a good course, worked hard there including part time work, both relevant internships and to cover living costs by working in a shop at the weekends. He got a good job out of uni and has accelerated quickly in his career. He has a lot of responsibility, works long hours and some rare skills and therefore his employers have always paid him a good salary. His bonus is large because he took on a lot more this year, what is your problem?

People are paid what employers can get away with paying them.

Do you honestly not think there are many, many jobs that pay less than half for the same hours?
My Husband cooks the food in the kind of restaurant you could afford to eat at but we couldn't. There's an example. Cleaners, carers, childminders...the list is endless.
You're living in a dream world!

I think you have literally no idea of how the world works.
Degree-tick
Masters-tick
Works hard-tick
Earns a combined 148k salary-nope.
A lot of life is down to luck. What pisses me off is a stinking attitude like yours. Not everyone on a low wage is an uneducated lowlife.

OP, many people are going to think that someone being given a bonus that is larger than the annual salary of many full time workers is morally wrong.

waitrose I still don't understand your problem. Do you think there should be a maximum salary or something? People choose careers based off of what the can do and what they want to do. Not everyone has the same skills and qualifications, not everyone has the same interests, not everyone has the same temperament and not all jobs create the same amount of money for the employers who hire them.

If a salesperson brings in £1M of sales and another brings in nothing, they should obviously have different salaries - probably as a bonus, because the employer wouldnt know in advance of that year who would bring in what. Do you think that is wrong?

Unfortuntely,the more you earn the more tax you pay. Your salary would buy a house outright in a lot of areas. I worked 60 hours a week when my kids were small, (I worked nights, DH days) he and my salary combined was under £40.000

OP, many people are going to think that someone being given a bonus that is larger than the annual salary of many full time workers is morally wrong.

^That. Thank you for putting that into words I was too worked up to form! Leaving this thread now as the attitude of the OP is making me feel physically ill.

You do realise most people can't actually afford to do unpaid or low paid internships to move themselves up in the world, OP? Or saddle themselves with massive debts for life? Not all jobs are valued the same but some have just as long hours and are just as stressful as your husband's, with the added burden of how to make ends meet on a smaller salary.

Equality of opportunity is a myth. You are very naive and come across as entitled.

What do you do that has 70 hour weeks and half the salary?

Bloody hell, lots of people, OP.

Lots of people have been to uni, got all the relevant qualifications, worked their arses off, upskilled, kissed ass and continued to add to their experience/qualifications. And they'll still never come even close to earning £48k pa, let alone a combined income of £148k.

OP you're being short sighted. This won't be forever. Before long they will be in school, you can use after school clubs or an au pair and you'll have loads left over from your salary. You'll be glad you kept working then

Just to say my husband works similar hours very high stress, doing more than one person's job as they are short staffed. He earns 30k a year. He's an electrical engineer.

Venus His internships were not unpaid (around 20K pro rata). And they were only in the summer holidays. We're not from rich families. Dh was out-earning his dad a year after graduating, his mum is a teacher.

I agree though, some industries are inaccessible for people who cant afford to do an unpaid internship. Particularly politics, journalism, art, PR, marketing etc Which can often involve YEARS of unpaid work before earning a wage.

Oh and I don't work because my son has ASD and am constantly getting calls to pick him up so can't commit to a job. We very much struggle.

It's not 'robbery' that you don't get the childcare subsidy. That would be like saying it's 'robbery' that my family doesn't get your DH's bonus! We're not entitled to that; you're not entitled to this.

I do think we should do better in this country to have properly state-subsidised childcare for everyone. But this is the system we've got right now, alas.

Do you really think that the only reason your husband gets paid a large salary and other people don't is because he is superior in some way to them? He may be intellectually superior, he may do a more important job. Or he may not. It entirely depends on the other person and what they do. What I'm sure we can all agree on is that there are a lot of people who struggle to keep a roof over their heads, and you are not one of them.

waitrose I agree with you. How ANYONE earning £148k between them has the cheek to be moaning about money is beyond me. Oh- you work hard? Well- so do rest of us. Bugger off to Hong Kong.

OP, not sure what you started this thread for.

Nobody thinks you're unreasonable for thinking about moving to another country because you'd be wealthier there.

If you want people to agree that someone on over 100 grand should be getting a 4 grand childcare subsidy, many people are not going to, but that wasn't the question in your OP.

The route into many jobs is unpaid as you correctly acknowledge. What about those people who don't get 20k holiday internships? Do you honestly think people don't lose out in those industries?

Just read all of OP's responses and it just got worse and worse. You have truly outdone yourself on this last page OP . The idea that your DP earns as he does purely through hard work, with no element of good luck whatsoever, is downright ridiculous. My dad earns what you and your DP earn combined although has only done so for the last few years, he grew up super poor abroad (at one point family of five lived in one room whilst he was very little), he works harder than anyone I know (too hard, it's bad for his health) - but he recognises that lots of that is due to luck!! And definitely doesn't resent his big tax burden, why should he? He knows what it's like to be poor in a country with basically no welfare state and he wouldn't wish that on anybody. And if you want basic welfare protections for people then somebody has to pay for it!!

Also, DH is an A&E hospital porter and often works 70 hour weeks which if done continuously for a whole year would still work out to be less than a quarter of your DP's salary...and by the way, he has a 2:1 degree too, comes from one of the poorest boroughs in the whole country and has always worked hard. Your attitude is so insulting to him and people like him.