How on earth can I afford to work??

[Arrowfanatic]

Stopped working to become a sahm in the early part of 2011.

I now have 3 kids all in primary school and have been considering returning to full time employment.

However I've been totalling the costs of child care and I just can't see how it's worth it. Daily costs for before/after school care is almost £60 a day and that's after the sibling discount.

Holiday costs are close to £100 a day after discount.

I have no family or friends who could help, and the nature of my husband's work means he wouldn't be able to be reliable to do any school runs (works for the emergency services, shifts, minimum notice call ins, very rarely makes it out on time and is at least 1.5 hour commute away).

Any job I could get would not be a big earner, less than £25k. Even with childcare vouchers I can't see it being worth it. I feel like I should try to work, especially now the kids are all in school but it looks impossible. My husband's salary although good only just covers our costs as it is.

Is there anything else out there to help? We don't qualify for any benefits, except child benefit so no tax credit help.

It's pointless me working isn't it.

Could you go back to university and get a better paid job?

I agree.. try and train for a better paid job. You still have lots of time to establish a career!! And once your kids are at secondary school, childcare costs will be F all.

Ive never been to uni/college so would be starting from scratch and couldn't afford the course costs anyway. Still, any job would need to be big bucks to cover the care costs. £1200 a month just for before/after school.

I'm skilled and experienced, I used to have a very good job but all this time out of work I couldn't go back to a role like it.

Can you buy or start a small business. I bought a local small business in early 2016. It turns over £700-£1k per month with around £400+ profit per month and i can do it round school and in evenings/weekends.

I don't have the skill set to run my own business, I wouldn't know where to start. I run a club already but get no income from it.

I'm thinking about the same thing OP although DC not at school yet. Any professional job I want to continue with will eat up all my earnings in childcare and travel. Seems pointless. Frustrating

Childcare costs are crippling - you have my sympathies OP. I work full time but have managed to get my contract changed to term time only - so I don't have the additional costs of holiday clubs.

The only thing I can suggest is try to find a job that is part time and term time only - although appreciate they are pretty rare.
Have a look on your local council website.
I don't know what your area of expertise is but would it be possible to maybe be a PA or something along those lines? I know a couple of people who do PA work from home around their children. So they are earning without all of their salary going on childcare costs.

Think ahead to a time that your childcare costs will drop.

Are you able to confidently assume you can get a job at the same level as the one you will get now then? And can you afford the drop in pension contributions? Finally can you afford for you to earn nothing until then?

If the answer to all three is yes then wait. If it’s no, it’s worth going back to work even if initially there is little obvious gain.

Have you explored other childcare options? Sometimes having a childminder before / after school is a lot cheaper.

So if earning big bucks isn't going to be possible, then maybe look for smaller earners but that require less childcare.

If you don't need to earn right now, (im assuming you don't if you've been a sahm for a few years), it's worth just keeping your eyes/ears open for the right job when it turns up.

I have 3 and childcare costs would be about the same as yours.

Found a term time only, 8-3 so I only need before school care, not after school (which is more expensive) and I finish 10 mins before my kids so leg it across town for the school pick up.

It may not pay well but as I don't need holiday or after-school care, it's all money in my pocket rather than me working to pay for childcare.

If you could do that for a few years while they're at primary, and train around working towards a better paying job when they're at secondary.

Costs reduce quickly as children get older.

Jobs come in all shapes and sizes with different hours and locations. Full time, evening, weekend, part time, compressed, work from home, shifts, nights, self employment.

I suggest you broaden your search, either in terms of what you would consider doing, or the hours you consider working.

What about studying for a degree through the OU? You'd still have course costs (unless you're in Scotland) but nothing like what you'd pay at a red brick university.

And the OU doesn't have entry requirements as such.

I remember going back to work with just the 1 and it was £900/month for a childminder, and the cost didn’t drop until DD started reception, and then before and after school still worked out at £270/month and back up to £900/month in school hols.

The nursery fees were also payable on top, and the CM was only 4 days/week 🙈🙈🙈

Childcare costs should be a family expense surely - too often it's seen as the mothers cost. There are many other benefits to working than the money, if you are doing a job you like/enjoy.

ASC is a nightmare but those charges do seem high. I pay £17.50 at our school ASC for 2 children (London).

Is there someone local you could employ privately?

Well for a start, work out exactly what your costs would be with childcare tax credits, tax free childcare and vouchers. That way you can make an informed decision.

If your husband is emergency services, his employer almost certainly does the vouchers. And the threshold for childcare tax credits when you have 3 kids is 65k, which I presume your DH doesn't earn since you get child benefit.

www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/child-tax-credit

You wouldn't get much if your DH is on say 50k, but you'd get something. Don't confuse the child tax credit and childcare tax credit limits- not the same thing.

You can use childcare tax credits and vouchers in combination with each other, I don't know about tax free childcare. But if you're using vouchers so your childcare is eg £50 a day instead of £60, you can only claim tax credits on the £50 figure, iyswim.

There is also no need to work full time, unless that's all that is on offer near you. Because of the way that NI and income tax work, if you're on a 25kish full time job, your 1st and 2nd days of work in the week will pay you much more than your 4th and 5th. If you could earn 25k full time, if that would translate into allowing you to work 0.4 (can be a big if, I know) that's around £800 a month. No tax, few quid NI only. If you only needed childcare for 2 days a week, you'd still be in profit from working.

Any job I get would have to be the basic 9-5 situation to allow for child care. I cant rely on my husband due to his job, plus all the kids clubs etc weekends and evenings and I wouldn't want them to have to give those up.

Financially I don't have to work, but I feel guilt for not working whilst my husband works lots if that makes sense. He is quite happy for me to stay a sahm, therefore any working would need to be financially worth it if that makes sense.

My skill set previously was in social housing, debt collection type area. But i was lucky the company paid well, those sort of paid jobs just aren't around now. I enjoyed it though and ideally would prefer to stay in my "comfort zone " so to speak as confidence is pretty low.

I actually applied for a few school receptionist jobs but kept getting told I'm too highly skilled for the role, but they'll keep me on record. Part time/school hour jobs are bloody gold dust down here.

Can you go back PT and then not pay for wrap around childcare?

Would an au pair be a possibility? We had one when my two were 8 & 11 and it worked very well for that difficult age when they could really look after themselves to all intents and purposes but were not old enough to be latch key kids. Later on we moved to having a student for the summer, the last one had just finished teacher training and was excellent.

Isa my husband earns around £66k but because his pension contributions through his employer are high it takes him below the threshold to lose Child Benefit. However for what we do get he pays extra tax to account for it, if that makes sense.

If I was you I would try and get some kind of part time job. Even if it was only one morning a week. It is very difficult to find a job if you haven't worked for many years. So if you don't work now, you could find it very difficult to ever get a job again by the time your children no longer need childcare.

Sometimes people iget evening jobs but that isn't possible for you as your DH works shifts. And school holiday childcare will work out very expensive that's if you can even find a childminder who does school holidays. You could be a childminder. I'd hate that but it's probably one of the most flexible jobs in your position except if your husband works nights then that wouldn't be ideal.

I agree with studying for more qualifications and making long term plans for when your DC's not longer need childcare.

He is quite happy for me to stay a sahm, therefore any working would need to be financially worth it if that makes sense.

It’s not him that would be up shit creek due to you being out of the workforce so long if you split up.

How about a part time job to save up to train? Eg start off with some cleaning of private houses or perhaps a job in a school (like TA or something) - part-time in the daytime. Once you've saved up a bit perhaps you could train in something that is of interest and would enable you to work around commitments, eg hairdressing, beauty, doing nails, personal training, garden maintenance for people etc. They're the sort of jobs where all you need is a few private clients to keep you ticking over and bringing money in while children are at school.

Tax credits take into account the figure after pension contributions I think. There's also the vouchers, so you'd get something.

I'm not saying work if it won't suit you OP, just do the calculations.

This is exactly why I had to become SAHM. exactly. and was despised by some school mums who had one child and parents living next door who were round the clock childcare. I carried on as long as I could but then had to care for sick parents too. Impossible.
Also, with 3, you have three times the likelyhood of sick days, or other difficulties. The best choice would be to find something during school hours ( which probably means working at a school or college) just to keep your hand in, keep your CV current and earn a bit of independence. Then as they get older you can train/plan to get back to your old sector or a new one. BTW I did see some threads on here saying that its not a good idea to describe parent duties as "work" on your CV, which some careers councillors would advise.
You have skills and experience, some companies actively promote part time schemes to attract mothers back to work, particularly in the financial sector. I think you just need that first job back, to get your feet back under the desk. when you are ready and then move on from there. Good luck