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?

nonsparkle you don't have to justify yourself. Some individuals are from the very fortunate position that they can't relate outside of their own tiny sphere. Financially they may be richer but i'll bet a hug and smile after a tough day from your 4 year old is worth more than any fancy bottle of wine or designer handbag.

Life has many phases, may your current challenging one be short lived.

She can complain about her situation or tell entitled people that they are entitled all she likes.

I can't get my head around this idea that only the sahp pays childcare. Surely the working parent agreed to have children??

OP, stop whinging and manage your finances better. You both earn very good salaries, make some cutbacks and budget properly and you will find you can survive very happily on 150k pa. 29k on nursery seems excessive for example. Where do you shop for food? How often do you eat out? Expensive hobbies? Lots of holidays? Clothes?

If you don't want to be reminded of unpalatable truths, best not to throw stones at those who know them'

Thanks girls :)

My heart pumps piss

I think people should have the amount they earn next to their user name so i know whether or not i need to be polite to them

having said that i will need to be polite to everyone

Not going to be polite though

29k on nursery is a lot. I'm london, wealthy suburb, nursery (and all the surrounding ones that I looked at, with no particular filter) is about £18k a year. More than half again as much sounds like a very particular kind of lifestyle.

If your salary was the average UK salary that would be an entry level salary in London. It would only pay for your childcare and hubby would have to sub the fancy sandwiches, travel, clothes etc. But that is not how the calculation should be done. It's a family issue based on the whole family's needs. And if you both wanted to work you could all move out of London.

I really don't know why you feel the need to justify going to HK. Just go.

time £29k is for two children.

£29k is a lot. Where I'm from you would expect to pay 13-15k per year for 2. That's at one of the very good ones and also where I worked for 5 years.

fred where do you live? Two kids in 7:30-6 nursery just costs that in London. It's not a fancy nursery.

Just nursery costs plus tube with no other expenses require a pre tax salary of 43,824£. If I earned 20k a year (16.5 after tax) I wouldn't be able to afford to work. So that's why it makes sense to take it out of the lower earner salary because the alternative is the lower earner not working.

bobo what are your thoughts on the swiss taxation system then? Higher rates all round yet much better standardisation across the board.
(I can ask an opinion as dp and i work hard, pay nursery fees and pay tax with no rebates - yet still earn a joint income of under 40k)

nonsparkle do you live in London? Rent is higher here which raises the costs. Also, is that for full days (7:30-6) 5 days a week?

OK, that's very expensive. Is it worth you working?

It's not YOUR JOB that pays childcare, it's both of yours. Unless the child's not dh's.

Yes I agree pippi!!

Your childcare comes from a 150k pa salary not 48k

Thank you!

Switzerland is a very different country to the UK. You cannot isolate taxation from the culture and system.

The British economy has an awful lot of structural weaknesses and inconsistencies. Childcare is too expensive versus other comparable economies. Taxation of married couples is a messy hybrid between individual and joint. Parents need to save for university (which will be much more expensive when today's nursery goers are students). And taxation is likely to go up after Brexit. How are people supposed to plan and budget when they are already taxed to the hilt? The policies are awful.

No, childcare is a cost that only arises when the second adult in a couple goes out to work. It is therefore a cost of the second adults work, like tube fares.

It may be a cost that only arises then but that doesn't mean that earner should be solely responsible for it.

.... so if I was on a salary of 20k I should work even though I would be paying thousands of pounds to work? That just wouldn't make sense. I would rather stay at home with the DC! I don't think we're ever going to agree on this.

Would you work in that scenario? Taking home £1370 a month but nursery costs £2416 a month. Because in your mind 1208 is paid by DH and 1208 is paid by you so you are still making a profit?? Serious question.

fred it's slightly less than most others around here (but not much), very convenient location for us and they've been great with DC1.

That's a different issue. But it's very important to understand the actual cost of working - something that is very often misunderstood on MN.

No, childcare is a cost that only arises when the second adult in a couple goes out to work. It is therefore a cost of the second adults work, like tube fares

The mysoginyst manifesto

Would you work in that scenario? Taking home £1370 a month but nursery costs £2416 a month. Because in your mind 1208 is paid by DH and 1208 is paid by you so you are still making a profit?? Serious question.

A profit?? Strange choice of word.

And I can't believe I'm the only one who has split childcare costs straight down the middle with my dh for my entire life. It meant he valued me financially, it meant I never had that awful feeling of all my money disappearing on childcare.