To really think there needs to be more help available for childcare

[pinkcreamsoda]

I am looking at nurseries as I am really hoping to have a baby in the next eighteen months.

I earn 45,000 a year so I know I am luckier than most. This translates as about 2400 monthly pay.

Nursery is 1200 a month.

It’s a lot!

The father will contribute, surely?

Does your partner work? Childcare costs should be split between you not just come out of your wages.

From where though? (serious question, not being mean 🙂).

God, you're keen, aren't you? When will you need the place, in two years? I wasn't looking until my DD was 3 months, to go in at 10 months.

So will the Dad not be contributing then?
If you halve it then it's only £600 each
Plus its only for a couple of years

It’s not as simple as the father splitting costs though is it?

The person who earns the most works. The other person either stays at home (no childcare costs, household income is just one income) or goes back to work (household income is both salaries minus childcare costs).

Could be worse OP, you could have twins unexpectedly. It’s going to be years before I can go back to work.

I would be having the baby as a single parent.

Twins would be, ah interesting

And yes you are very lucky - few mums are adding £1200 a month to household income after childcare costs. I know several mums who work for about £1.50 an hour, if that.

So where should this extra help.come from ....seriously. Every woman gets child benefit...if youncant afford a child dont have one. Plenty manage on less, you have to decide what important depending on what you earn !

Luck has played a part in me having a well paid job, I agree.

With respect, OP, the government isn't unreasonable to assess the cost of childcare based on two incomes. Children have two parents. If you choose to take on the costs of raising a child single-handed, then I don't think you are entitled to expect more help because childcare is expensive.

Ok...so would you get childcare vouchers? What are your current outgoings? Can you start saving now?

I think the extra help could come from flexible work, nurseries being paid hourly rather than set shifts (morning / afternoon) and so on.

I’m a childminder and looking at the combinations of ways I am paid, I think there’s a lot of help.

Childcare vouchers
Tax free childcare
Funded hours at 2/3/4 years of age
Tax credits
Universal credit

are all things you can have a look at.

I earn too much for TCs and UC and rightly so - this isn’t a complaint about the benefit system, flawed though it is, but the costs are pretty high and must prevent some people working at all thus making them reliant on benefits and so it’s a bit of a vicious circle.

You can get UC on that wage for childcare

Yes welcome to all working parents world . And then think about juggling kids and work / school holidays if they are ill and all the other costs .
It does make me laugh when I meet a new mum who complains about childcare costs but never occurred beforehand . You have my sympathy but a lot of people me including have brought children up on a lot less money we have managed because we have to . If your worried save as much as you can , but the cost of childcare isn't going to change overnight.

I don't think you will be able to sign up for childcare vouchers in a couple of years but there is the tax free childcare scheme where you can save 20% on nursery costs.

You can request flexible working but your employer doesn't have to grant it.

Maybe you save up some in advance so that you can afford the nursery fees and then when they are three you get some hours free across the week anyway?

you will be able to use tax free childcare, and I wouldn't be looking at childcare options before I'd given birth, never mind before I'd even conceived

Childcare Costs are pretty high but then so are living costs. They are comparable because much of the same resources are needed. Rent, utilities, fuel, food, wages have all gone up extraordinarily high in the last 10 years so to cover those, settings have had to raise prices. They aren’t making more profit, in fact never before have so many settings closed as they have in the last 18 months due to underfunding and financial crises.

It does make me laugh when I meet a new mum who complains about childcare costs but never occurred beforehand

God, you're keen, aren't you? When will you need the place, in two years? I wasn't looking until my DD was 3 months, to go in at 10 months

You can't win can you? Think about it beforehand...get slated. Don't think about it beforehand...get slated.

The problem is chicky that if I was already pregnant everyone would say how silly it was I hadn’t looked into it first.

Yes indeed former

If you rent, not if you have a mortgage though