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!

Why?

You are choosing to have a baby, why should anyone subsidise you for your own personal choice?

Because, weirdly enough, it’s in society’s interests for women to have children... shocking I know!

The good thing about looking into childcare costs now is you have time for financial planning.
You could try living for the next 18 months on what you would have left after childcare costs and see if it is do able at at the same time put that sum away for a emergency fund or to extend maternity leave if you wanted/needed.

Tbh if you're in the south east you'll struggle as a single parent on £44k unless you own your own home outright.

It's not enough I'm afraid as a single parent to be able to work and have a reasonable standard of living. Sorry

I can get UC on that wage
Single person (over 35) with child £317.82
Child allowance £231.67 child care rate (max) £646.35, rent allowance under lha £555.40= £1751.24

Income 2400 - £198 personal allowance times 63% = 1387.26

1751.24 - 1387.26 = £363.98

Op would have to look up her own lha rate as that varies around the country.

All moot if she has a mortgage as then the lha is not added so her allowance would only be 1196.14 her personal allowance would go up to £409 but 63% of £1991 is £1254.33.

YANBU. I have a 20 month old in nursery. The fees are more than my mortgage. Im working ft because the fees are only for a few years and it will get better when she is 3 and she gets 30 funded hours. What frustrates me is that my cousin, who doesn't work, gets those hours when her dc is 2 because she and her partner are on a lower income. She chooses not to work, she has never had a job and she doesnt want the nursery hours as she wants to be a sahm. Even half those hours would make a massive difference to us. The government want mothers to work, but they make it difficult.

You can get UC on a salary of £45k?
Can you F..ck !!

You can get workplace nursery benefit and save loads of tax and ni. Your employer signs up and the nursery doesn't have to be at your workplace to be eligible. So any nursery will be fine. Look it up on google.

im a childminder, fee's are £4.50 p.h where I live, most parents pay with tax free childcare, so not all options are expensive x

Well good luck OP and well done for thinking about it. Fellow single parent here. It's exhausting, relentless and takes every spare penny you have. You will never regret it . If you can, save before getting pregnant. If your employer does childcare vouchers start saving them as soon as possible. Think about nurseries and childminders or a mix of both. You do get free hours later which helps. Hope you are successful and that you enjoy every minute.

I earn twice your salary and we do struggle with childcare costs. After all, you have £1,200 a month left to do everything! My mortgage is £1k. I couldn’t do it on £45k as a single income. Luckily my DH earns too and when he had 6 months out my salary just about stretched but completely unrealistic to keep it up long term.

IN terms of what can be done- restrict freee hours to working parents, increase the level of childcare vouchers one can claim, offer subsidies to work places to open an on site nursery

Dunno if this has been raised but 1) why is your take home pay only 2400 per month? It should upwards of 2800 and 2) yoiu can get the tax free childcare thing and therefore you'd only pay about 960 per month. its not that bad.

Pension contributions I assume.

@bigchocfrenzy seems lots of EU countries heavily subsidise nurseries. A friend just put her son ina Spanish nursery full time for a few months and it was €220 A MONTH

Just imagine how many women out there who's monthly income isn't much more (or less) than £1200.

I was lucky. I was able to work part time around child care while my boys were young. But it's not possible for everyone.

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.

God, are people really stupid enough to TTC without any idea of what childcare costs and whether they can afford it?

At one point ( 1980s) childcare costs were half each of our net wages! Nothing changes does it? /except when the state needs women in work and then nurseries were set up in many factories during world war 2 which nurseries promptly closed when the war was over.

I am just looking at my 1988 diary and one day our childcare let us down and how hard it was to work around that. For the seocnd day we had to find a nanny agency, pay them £35 (£89 today) and pay the lady £3 an hour (£7.65 an hour in today's money ) x 8 hours. By that summer we had 3 children under 4 so the cheapest childcare was paying one person to look after all 3 at home but she couldnt' drive so we had a constant problem of getting the 3 year old to and from her morning nursery school. I had forgotten until today how difficult it had been. I had just started a new job in London too so didn't want to be taking days off. Nurseries can be more reliable but if you are paying full time for 3 children under 5 that is very very expensive then and now.

The father will contribute, surely?
Can people not do basic maths? If our joint income is £2k and childcare is £1k it matters not a jot whether it all comes out of my salary or we pay half each - as a family we still have £1k left.

Nurseries are more difficult than a nanny if a child is ill, though. I wonder if the OP is considering a nanny though as they're generally only worth it with three preschoolers aren't they?

She won’t be able to afford a nanny. Illness isn’t that big of a deal, obviously if you have a very ill child and a nightmare employer it can be but underneath most circumstances you Survive it

YANBU to think childcare is too expensive OP. You’re fortunate to be able to cover it. Lots of people can’t afford to return to work because the cost of childcare exceeds their earnings. It’s a shame these people can’t be productively employed, but I suppose there aren’t enough jobs to go round as it is, without even considering getting SAHP’s into work as well. If childcare was better funded and SAHPs were suddenly able to work we’d have an economic crisis because there wouldn’t be enough jobs to go round.

Just imagine how many women out there who's monthly income isn't much more (or less) than £1200

Yes, but on much lower incomes, you are more likely to be entitled to top up benefits.

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

All our money goes into one account. DH’s pay covers bills mine covers childcare.

There would be more jobs- the job the SAHP does and another job created in childcare to look after their children win win

It’s a big expense & even with the 15 & 30 hours it doesn’t become as cheap as you think e.g I paid top ups for food, lunchtime supervision & you have to pay full price for the remaining 12 weeks. DC1 is 4 & I only pay for afterschool club & activities so it’s much better now.