To ask how you do nursery holiday childcare

[Peppapigforlife]

Sorry if this has come up many times before, I'm just trying to figure it out for myself.

So if you get 30 hours free childcare, it's only for the term time weeks and you have to be working 16 hours a week for it.
My DD will be entitled to it from September and I'll be looking for part time work before then.
But I've just realised I won't be able to earn in the holidays. If I can't earn in the holidays does that mean I won't be entitled to the 30 hours a week, as on the gov website it states that you have to earn 16 times minimum wage per week. The childcare around here all closes in the holidays.

Just wondering what people do and trying to figure out what best to do?

A holiday club will likely be ofstead registered, you will get 85% of that paid

You've never met the father?

So a planned single parent donor then.

Surely you planned childcare etc before having a child

Thank you, that's what I hope to do.

I've never met my dear husband.

What are you trying to get from me? I've already found the solution to my query- holiday clubs.

How have you married someone without meeting them?

Someone asked me about my DH and I said I haven't met him yet. I hear online dating is the best way these days to find him.

Ah ok that's great then! You might have to take on a job then quit in the holiday. If you only need the job for extra spending money then I'd consider working more hours and saving it for the holidays.

I live in an area where it’s all term time unless you travel further. There are a few holiday clubs and I use the nearest one that’s attached to a preschool.
DS loves holiday club and looks forward to it.
most other mums either don’t work or use family
it’s a weird area

Is term time work a possibility for you?

People are trying to help and you are being sarky.

People were asking about your partner, the child's father. No need to be sarky

We might be in the same area! I don't know any mums who work full time here either!

When your child is five you will have to work for a minimum 25 hours a week. Or do activities to actually try and get a job for 25 hours a week under the UC rules.

What do they count as activities?

Depends on the individual claimant commitment but can be training, applying for a minimum number of jobs etc

There’s a grace period with the 30 hours which means even if you fall out of eligibility, the funding is still applicable for the grace period. I think if you reconfirmed your funding code at start of the school holidays, that should give you a code for the Autumn term’s use and then once you have to reconfirm in the October, your earnings should make you eligible again.

Wow that's really helpful to know, thank you :)

Fair play to you to, have managed to set yourself up as a single mum who only needs to work part time for extra spending money. You have obviously done really well.
Childcare provision sounds dire where you are so I would seriously consider working as child minder if you ever actually need full time work.
Or if you have enough finances behind you setting up a standard full time nursery.

Apologies if someone else has said this but I noticed you said you were going to do some of the work at home from the £10 a day thread? A lot of this work can be done any time including evenings when the kids are in bed so you would still be able to do it in the holidays as well. I highly recommend that thread also, I paid my daughters school fees for a year doing it (£1100 a month) just doing 20 hours a week in the evenings on top of my day job.

Thanks. Good to know they look at each claimant individually.

Aha

Another thread where there's a misunderstanding of what the 15/30hrs is intended to provide.

It is not intended to be childcare focussed on facilitating parents to work.

Its early years education for the child, which is why it's based on term time and only 30h (roughly 9-3 daily), as this is the amount of education its optimal for the child to receive.

The principle being that working parents who need full time childcare covering full working hours either pay for this or if on a low income, can help with the cost via UC.

Also OP, be prepared, the government underfunds those hours. Most nurseries and providers will have additional costs in the form of resources fees, lunch charges etc or will limit the hours they offer funded, so you may need to budget to top up the cost to get the childcare you need to work, it's almost never totally free.

Unfortunately if you live rurally and don’t drive you’ll need to be prepared to learn to drive for more work and childcare options.

The jobcentre won't be able to change the hours you're required to work based on school terms. Conditions of entitlement for benefits are set by legislation and jobcentre staff don't have the discretion to say 'ok you can work less hours this week but still be entitled to that benefit'

My friend takes her dd on the train with her to a daycare next to her work. Might be something to think about if your going to commute. Friend says they enjoy chatting on the morning then friend gives dd a lunch box tea on the way home on the train.

also, you don’t need to work all year round if you are paid across 12 months but it needs to average the equivalent of 16 hours per week at min wage.

So you need to look at whether you’ll earn around £700 a month across the year.

I work full time. I chose a private day nursery to stop this issue. I still get my 30 free hours but I annualise them.

I can't believe you have no full time nurserys near you. Are you aware that the 'private' nurseries still take funded hours?

The holiday and wrap around clubs around here don't take children younger than reception.