To be surprised at the cost of childcare after 30 hours free and Tax free funding

[Curiosity101]

I guess I probably am. I remember when we were planning for DC1 we worked out how much childcare would cost and factored that in at full price.

Then we started looking to see if there was any help we should apply for and saw tax free childcare. Great! Tax-free childcare sounds fantastic. Until you realise it's actually 20% off childcare with a cap on the top up, so a tiny bit of the childminder fees aren't covered. I assumed (stupidly) it'd be like the child care voucher scheme and it would be more like salary sacrifice based on tax bands.

Now I'm looking ahead to when DS becomes eligible for 30 hours free childcare. And I've just realised it's 30 hours partly subsidised for 38 weeks a year or 22 hours partly subsidised for 52 weeks a year. I mean I guess that's not as catchy a title for the scheme so I get why they went with their name choice.

I'm expecting we'll need to top up his childminder fees for the funded hours anyway to make sure his childminder can cover her costs. So once he's eligible for 30 hours free childcare then Tax-free childcare + 30 hours free will probably only just about halve the initial childminding fees. I'm grateful for the schemes being there, but talk about false advertising!

I can definitely see why lots of people chose to go part-time after having children. Especially if they have more than one.

Please please stop thinking of it as '30 hours free' it's not!! It's 30 hours funded and your childminder/nursery/preschool is in their right to ask for a payment to cover consumables, they cannot ask for a top up however!
Consumables can be anything from food to drinks to craft items to nappies and is usually charged as the councils are extremely greedy and whereas they get a set amount per child per funded hour from the Government the council then only passes on a portion of that to the childcare setting.
In Norfolk last year child care settings got £3.65 per funded hour per child regardless of what their hourly rate is meaning some childcare settings are having a loss of £1.35 per child per funded hour.
Sorry if this comes across as patronising or snippy but as a childminder it annoys me when people moan about the cost of childcare when 70% of the time childminders particularly are running at a loss for offering the funded hours in the first place....people seem to be happy to pay for cleaners or dog walkers but not to care for their children

@2anddone I totally agree with you. Perhaps I didn't word this bit well but I was trying to make it clear that I fully expect to have to top up the 'free' hours in some way, that's why I expect that his childcare costs will only halve once both schemes are applied.

I'm expecting we'll need to top up his childminder fees for the funded hours anyway to make sure his childminder can cover her costs.

I don't blame childminders and now I've read about the scheme I don't think of it as 30 hours free. As a said, I'd call it

30 hours partly subsidised for 38 weeks a year or 22 hours partly subsidised for 52 weeks a year

My point was that with schemes titles 'Tax free childcare' and '30hours free childcare', you'd expect that the fees will be a lot less than half at the end of it.

YANBU to be disappointed that it's not actually as much of a good deal as it's advertised as being.

It's a help, and definitely better than no discount. But yeah, I don't know anyone who hasn't been caught out by how low the reduction is.

[quote Curiosity101]@2anddone I totally agree with you. Perhaps I didn't word this bit well but I was trying to make it clear that I fully expect to have to top up the 'free' hours in some way, that's why I expect that his childcare costs will only halve once both schemes are applied.

I'm expecting we'll need to top up his childminder fees for the funded hours anyway to make sure his childminder can cover her costs.

I don't blame childminders and now I've read about the scheme I don't think of it as 30 hours free. As a said, I'd call it

30 hours partly subsidised for 38 weeks a year or 22 hours partly subsidised for 52 weeks a year

My point was that with schemes titles 'Tax free childcare' and '30hours free childcare', you'd expect that the fees will be a lot less than half at the end of it.[/quote]
I completely agree with you the advertising for the scheme is shocking....there are many campaigns to get councils to change the word 'free' to 'funded' so many parents are finding jobs or upping their hours at work for the term after their child turns 3 expecting to have 30 hours completely free and then get such a shock when that doesn't happen.
As with everything they make it sound so good when in reality it ends up shooting lots of people in the foot whether that's the parents or the childcare setting!

Absolutely! It's better not to work!