Let’s talk childcare expenses!

[Maddie2019]

I was sitting down earlier this evening working out my bills when I realised our childcare is MORE than our rent!
How do you single parents do it?!!
I really don’t want to wish my little ones early years away, but I can’t help to be longing for his 3 year old funding to kick in - I feel awful!

Do you feel the same when it comes to childcare? We pay £700 a month for 4 days a week for 1 child which I should imagine is fairly good.

People keep asking me when I’m going to have another... I couldn’t even begin to imagine the childcare costs for 2 children 🤣

Tax free childcare? Tax credits? Universal credit?

Surly that’s not going to be enough to cover the majority of the cost? We get £40 a month contribution in tax credits towards it but we have an overpayment last year so currently waiting until I can receive again 😬🤣

Why should it cover the majority of the cost?

Ours was £1400 a month. It's ridiculous!

Our bill is £620 a month for 3 full days for an under 2 so I think yours is a bargain! Tax free childcare takes what we actually pay to just shy of £500 but still, that goes quite a way towards a months rent

I dont get how single parents, those with twins (they aren’t eligible for sibling discount at a lot of the nurseries we looked at!) or more than one in full time childcare do it

Ours would be similar if I worked four days, but I do three. But it works out quite a bit less with tax free childcare account.

£300 a month for 5 mornings. We knew what it was going to cost before having our dd, we waited an extra year to make sure we could afford it

It's why I stayed home and had mine close together. I returned to work when youngest was in year 1. We lived according to our means, we were not high income at all!

My twins are nearly 6 now but I remember the very brief period of time that they were under 1 and in nursery it cost just shy of £80 per day

Exactly what @GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat said! Who do you think should fund your childcare bill? The government? Remember that when the government say THEY are funding something, what they actually mean is that the TAXPAYER is funding it. Why should I pay for other people’s childcare bill (I have the same argument about care home fees, if the person needing care has enough money, they should pay, even if it means using up inheritance the family have their eyes on).
Childcare is expensive, but I think you just have to suck it up and do your best for the short amount of years when it is at its peak.

Don't look at what our European counterparts pay or you'll weep, op.
We pay £1790 for two under three in nursery for four days. Eldest's free hours kick in in January and she'll go term-time only (DH is a teacher) but I'll go full time that month, bill will drop to £1600. It's a lovely setting but that's way more than our mortgage

We pay £885.90 a month for 4 full days for 1 child but with tax free childcare it only costs us £708.64 so about £80 less than our mortgage. We're thinking of trying for number 2 sometime next year so that my return to work would co-invite with DS1 getting his 30 free hours. However, we need to ask nursery exactly how the free hours work and how much our payments would be for 1 child on free hours and 1 on full rate and then sit down and work out if we can afford it without me having to drip more than 1 day at work. If we can't afford it in afraid DS1 will be an only child.

£880 for dd2 per month. Its more than my mortgage. It is such a huge expense for us. I find it frustrating that my cousins kids get funding from 2 and she doesn't work. I can't afford not to work but we don't get anything. We both pay into the voucher system but even then, childcare is our biggest expense. But, I can't afford not to work. Roll on April and the funded hours!

I am going to have 2 in full time childcare for about 9 months in 2020/21 before some funding kicks in the for the eldest.

Thinking of selling a kidney

Yep, it's ridiculous. What I find absolutely bonkers is that for us, when DS goes to school next year, child care will get MORE expensive!

As others have mentioned, is tax free childcare an option? We don't qualify for any other help but that makes a massive difference. 4 days a week for one child at £5 per hour and it costs around £550 per month after the 20% tax is taken off.

I've already calculated how much better off we will be when the free hours finally kick in (in 2 years time...) It's the date we will start saving for a mortgage! Totally unable to save a penny right now.

As for "who should pay", well of course it's parents who should pay, but other countries don't have such a wage/ childcare discrepancy. Partially due to different ratios and also more regulated childcare costs.

I'm abroad and pay £2000 a month for lunchtime and after school care for two children. It's more than half of my salary.

But, that salary is very well deserved and without the help, I would not be able to go to work, and so for that I am very grateful and do not begrudge it at all.

Why will it be more expensive when he goes to school? @Fluffsmum

roughly £460 a month for 2 children ONE day a week.

Yes it’s ridiculous. Before mine went to school we were lying about £2k for 2 children. It was double our mortgage payment and took up the whole of one of our salaries. I felt like I was literally working just to pay someone to look after my kids. Looking back, I wished I’d just jacked in my job and spent that time with my kids, but we were both worried about stepping off the ladder or the effect a career break would have on future income. As it happened, when they started school I jacked in my job anyway.

We were working in professional jobs too. I really used to wonder what people in min wage jobs could possibly do. Childcare costs must prevent some people from working.

3 days a week and ours is still well over £300 even after the 3 year old funding.

@Maryann1975 I think you do find your own care home fees until money runs out or you die. There are obviously funded places though which is funded through the government for those who can’t afford it. Nursing homes are wayyyyyy more expensive than nursery (unsurprising as it’s 24hour care rather than upto 10hrs)

£340-£420 a month depending whether he does 4 or 5 days over the month. That's for one day a week for one child. We're very lucky to have flexible employers and family support. Tax free childcare account knocks 20% off though which is good.

@Brownzy because the cost of before and after school care and holiday clubs is more expensive than our current nursery when tax free childcare and funded hours are taken in to consideration (£25 per day once at school vs £16 currently).

The problem in the UK is we have very high taxes and very expensive childcare so it ends up being extremely unfair. We were paying 50% of each of our net incomes at one point for full time childcare. It can be about £22k per baby for full time care in inner London good nurseries. The £2k per child you might get if you claim in that state scheme is a drop in the ocean.

At one point we had a new baby, one year old and 3 year old and we both worked full time. At that point it was cheaper to pay one person to come to our house each day to look after those 3 than it would have been to pay for 3 places at a nursery full time.