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 🤣

I don’t think it should, that what I thought you were implying.

Crazy expenses 😳😳

It was £760 for five mornings a week, she has in the last two weeks left private nursery and is doing 30 hours at school nursery which is costing £0 (term after third birthday)

It was about £1100 a month for one child full time and I think we saved £180 a month of that from childcare vouchers so basically we cleared very little of my salary from me going back to work.

I was actually glad to be made redundant at the end of my second mat leave (NB, don't worry, not connected to my mat leave) because having 2 kids in childcare would have = 150% of my take home pay. We didn't qualify for anything beyond vouchers.

By the time I found work again & needed nursery for DS, DD was at school... but then that brings us to the nightmare of finding wraparound care after school (and in a 2-bed flat with 2 kids, au pair was not an option!)

I stayed at home as the cost of childcare for two was more than I would have earnt and while we could just manage on one salary I couldn't afford to work for a loss. Many people cut their hours or stop work because they can't afford to work, not because they have a rich husband subsidising them. Or alter their hours to work around each other to minimise childcare. Or heavily use grandparents for care.

What is really sad is that the quality of childcare you get for your huge bill is generally very poor - the cost of the low level of government funding is still more 16 year old girls in nurseries as are very cheap.

£1200 a month (which includes the free 30hours) for a baby, before/after school care for a 6yr old, and a 3yr old who gets the free hours. Single parent. It's basically my whole income, but I get some help from universal credit, which means if I include that, I actually manage to earn £6 a day after childcare expenses. I'm just not planning on eating/heating the house this winter or something. God knows.

£700 is good!! £1850 here with a £1475 rent....... we've as of this week moved to the 30 free hours and tax free childcare and if we did 5 days a week would still be over £800.. London though!

At £14 per hour for my 10 year old ds (adhd and asd) I have had to give up work as I could no longer afford it even with tax credits. Its completely shit

I'm a single parent. I get help with housing benefit (due to the fact i have childcare costs) and tax credits. My childcare costs aren't as bad now as both at school but holidays get expensive.

Yes childcare is expensive, but everyone deserves to earn a decent wage and childcare providers are no exception.

I'm a childminder, is a joke what the government pay me per hour for the funded children, over £1 less then my hourly rate. The funding is woefully inadequate.

I provide a high quality service, I work hard, my rates reflect that.

Sometimes these threads read like parents would rather I offered my service for free!

Yes childcare is expensive, it's arguably the main cost of having young children and having to work, but as someone already pointed out, if the government subsidised it more, it would just be a greater cost to tax payers.

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

That's what I found.

There was a couple of quid difference per day (I think £3 a day) in paying someone to come to the house instead paying for 2 under 3 in nursery.

It was a no brainer for me, no nursery drop off or pick up, same regular carer every time. Neither DP or I are massive earners (take home I'm on about £20k for 3 days a week and DP about £15k for a 7 day a week job but we are in tied accommodation for his job so no housing costs) but due to savings etc (for when we aren't in tied accommodation any more!) we don't qualify for any help.

We are going to have a difficult decision when DC1 qualifies for the free hours as whilst our 'nanny' is cost effective and convenient now she won't be then but is now a very valued part of our family that we don't want to lose.

£1800 per month 1 child full time in my part of London. And a huge waiting list, name needs to go down before birth. 🙄

I think the majority SHOULD be paid for. My annual income is 50k a year. Far more than you can earn to qualify for any benefits, including child benefits. And it should be plenty for a family to live on. But I get taxed a 3rd of my wages. So around 16-17k gone straight away. My travel expenses for work (which I can’t claim back as its a hire car which is classed as a luxury) comes to 8k a year. My childcare expenses for 3 children comes to £150 a day 6 days a week. So £46,800 a year. The childcare, tax and travel expenses alone for working a standard 6 day week, total over 70k a year. Now how the fuck does that work out? If I hadn’t managed to get a good chunk of their childcare paid for, we’d either starve, or I’d be better off back on benefits. I know people should be held responsible for their own children and circumstances, but it’s just a pisstake when people on benefits/minimum wage jobs are better off than people earning 50k. Blame the system, not the people struggling in it

I pay 300 a month for my 2 year old to do 2 mornings a week!

I am currently on mat leave, if I were to return to work and put my 2 in nursery for four days it would be 1800 a month, I'd earn 950, working in a nursery!

So I won't be going back to work for a few years.

@fitzbilly that’s not my opinion at all. I think people who work in childcare are generally woefully underpaid. I know a number of childminders personally, and there’s no way they’re raking it in, despite working really hard for long hours.

I do think childcare is too expensive, despite also feeling that workers aren’t paid enough. I compare the prices we pay to the prices my family in a Scandinavian country pay. There, there’s state run childcare from age 1 for every child, and it’s great quality and heavily subsidised. Of course the taxpayer is paying for this subsidy, but with more people able to work, because of the quality, availability and low cost of childcare, the cost is spread amongst more people. And of course, the taxpayer isn’t having to subsidise through benefits, as most people are working. Seems a no brainier to me.

The difference with child care is that it could be seen as an investment by the government. It’s an investment into the careers of parents so that they end up earning more and paying more in tax. If someone jacks in work because of childcare costs, that’s revenue lost for the government in immediate taxes and future revenue lost in terms of higher taxes reflecting a better job. More subsidies also mean that kids are in inspected premises with qualified staff, rather than being looked after informally. Make of that what you will but there’s a reason they have 30 hours of free funding and it’s not for the parents, that’s for sure.

I'm not going back because of childcare costs. 2 children (1 at school but it's no cheaper) is £1025 after tax free childcare. I earn £16.5K and commute 45 mins to do that. So £110 in petrol, plus the extra on the insurance (it dropped when I became a "homemaker") and we're better off with me at home.

Woefully it won't improve much with youngest at school even as oldest has a disability and the price difference between all day care and before/after school care is a whole £3 when you average holiday care into it. We spaced children out deliberately as by the time youngest is in school eldest will be starting secondary, but he won't be able to be left until he's much older it now seems

I agree with hungry that childcare should be seen as an investment. We paid over £1200 a month for one child in full time childcare. Where we live now (European county) it is around £200 a month total for two children in full time private nursery.

The attitude toward time off for sick children is like night and day too, not only is time off for dependents paid independently by the state but time off to care for poorly kids is split much more evenly.

Moving abroad has been a real eye opener into how behind the UK is on some aspects of childcare in early years.

We pay £70 per day childcare with nursery / wrap around clubs. I earn £105 per day. Thinking long term it will be worth it staying in the job market! 🙏

Am I missing something op, you have a child, but it was only this evening you calculated the cost of their child care against your living costs! What in reality did you think would happen?

Our childcare expenses have just raised due to no longer having our childminder :( meaning my LO now has to go to nursery.
It was more an eye opener this evening that our childcare is more than our rent, not a moan per say.

Parents of young children are generally tax payers. Children are future tax payers. In the majority of cases, it is only a matter of time before pensioners become net benefactors of the state. Young families are left to struggle really hard when pensions get a triple lock and inheritance is protected from care costs. It is about voting patterns and not what’s good for society. And it’s falling apart at the seams.

What @hungrywalrus said. I am a lone parent, I have worked within the public sector all my life. As did late DH, somehow there has been a loophole which means we are not eligable for any of his contributions/ pensions. So it is just me supporting us on a salary which in real terms is 1/3 less than it was when the Tory government came into power because austerity means we cannot have a cost of living pay rise and our pensions (which apparently are golden plated) cost us a lot more for totally different terms.
My parents have had the best of the welfare state. As have a lot of Tory voters (which they were not). Yet this age group dictate policy in this country and remain totally protected.
Childcare in Scandinavia is practically free, however there is a totally different mindset. People go back to work and pay into the system for child care/health etc. Taxes are high but everyone sees a return for their money. There is cetainly no SAHM culture as there is here ( it always seems to be the mother in the UK).