Not paying for childcare this autumn as bills go up

[Essenceandvibes]

I've just had an epiphany.....I absolutely won't be paying a penny for childcare this autumn as bills increase and I won't be made to feel guilty about it either. I can work from home and watch my baby and pick up my 10 year old from school without the assistance of anyone else and if my employer has an issue with it, he can pay an extra £2000 per month post tax to cover the cost of full time help.

Our bills are going to be about £800 a month just electricity and gas alone for our detached 4 bed house, this isn't even thinking about the increase of petrol or groceries.

The mortgage has also gone up a few hundred quid too....childcare and commuting is now a luxury not necessity and I really hope every parent joins me in asking for employers like it or lump it

Shameful the government have let everything get this far, the knock on effects will be huge

Not sure how you'll afford your lovely 4 bed hone with only 1 wage coming in but I suspect you'll soon find out

You do realise that most of the people disagreeing with you most probably voted for the government that caused this shit storm.

What's your reasoning for that?

You are obviously not a teacher, nurse, paramedic or a doctor! Try doing any of those jobs whilst looking after your baby.

I wonder if the hike in energy bills could in part, be a ploy to encourage people back to the office. It’s currently cheaper to wfh for some people, although it might not be for much longer.

Obviously not, OP stated her area of work is "SEO, PPC, paid ads".
It clearly isn't going to work for every single job out there...

Didn't those with babies and young kids have to do it during lockdown?! Or did you all get sacked for doing no work?

So many bloody naysayers on here with their sarky comments 🙄

I work in a supermarket and any colleagues with children have to tailor their hours around them so many work unsocial hours , 5am starts , evening shifts or nights and they manage . Perhaps you should try this or does a minimum wage job not appeal ?

This thread is so misleading. Everyone knows you can claim back 80% of childcare fees through Universal Credit, plus the 2 year funding, which most people find a way of claiming no matter how rich they are.

Absolute nonsense. Melodrama.

Lots of people were on furlough. They are no longer.

Funnily enough not everyone can pick and choose their hours as OP and their other accounts suggest.

“Didn't those with babies and young kids have to do it during lockdown?!”

Yes, they did. Nearly all were desperate for the nurseries and childminders to reopen. So desperate, in fact, that Early Years was only closed for the first lockdown.

Don't you remember everyone also claiming to be a key worker so they could still send their children to school and childcare settings .

@EYProvider it's UPTO 85% depending on your earnings.... actually. It's not an automatic thing like how UC make ot sound it's varies so if you get an okish wage you won't get the full amount back!

Wow! We are extremely extremely economical with our elec and gas usage (zero waste journey for many years!) and ours is now £316 dd for a 3 bed. And we fixed at the right stage, so will not see any increase in October thankfully. But wow, £140 for a 4 bed house is basically incredible right now.

Here’s your problem. I do get what you’re saying. I don’t agree with you. Why shouldn’t you pay for childcare?

If you want to be paid more to cover increase in costs then ask for a pay rise.

Completely understand your frustrations, we are all in the same boat BUT this type of attitude is completely unfair on your employer, your colleagues and your child.

Something will give, likely your performance at work, it’ll breed resentment with colleagues who are in the same and potentially worse position then you are.

I get that you think this would have an impact on putting pressure on the government, it may do, it may not but do you want to risk your job?

Why not look to see if it would be beneficial to lower your hours and put a flexible working request in!

Though I would be interested to see how a employment tribunal would rule!!

The current climate is not your employer or colleagues fault!

I did it for 6 weeks and it was hard as fuck. Then I got furloughed and it was fabulous.

Are you being sarcastic or just a knob?

And what of those of us who look after your children to feed our own?! You’d have us starve and lose our homes by taking away our income 🤔😳
im a childminder, I’m in the middle of showing my home for sale…today I was getting ready for a viewing tomorrow. Apart from a short walk out (in which we also bought cleaning products ha ha!) we didn’t do anything other than house work pretty much all day. I’m a professional childcare provider and even look after children as they deserve to be looked after while doing basic house tasks. I don’t believe anyone can look after children properly while doing a full time job.

If that’s your only option then you don’t really have a choice do you? And let’s face it there are plenty of big businesses profiteering on the back of this fiasco who are handing out massive bonuses and pay rises to directors and senior managers while the rest of their work force are getting hardly anything extra to cover all the extra costs. So no, I don’t blame you.

I agree that we should stick it to the man! But I think it would be better to go about it in an organised way, en masse. Check out the Don’t Pay Uk website. They are trying to get 1m people to pledge to stop paying energy costs in October. Sorry if others have already said this.

Yes, you are being unreadable. No one an do a full time job and look after a baby at the same time.
It is more than cheeky to think your employer will pay more for your childcare

I totally hear you op! It’s amazing how plp were just expected by employers to work from home with absolutely no childcare for two years but now it’s a total no no…..
I don’t know how you’ll manage with a baby especially if mobile but mine napped for two hours a day and if you aren’t doing lots of face to face meetings and can catch up a bit in the evening I think it’s doable.
I used to work freelance with dcs at home but only during naps and in v early morning and evening.
I’m in Ireland and an area where there is v little childcare , there’s actually no crèche whatsoever in my town or nearby , childminders (in Ireland the vast majority are unregulated) all have waiting lists . We are lucky in that our kids are all primary school aged but I’m amazed with how ridiculous the system is here , kids all finished super early and an hour difference for two years between infants and older primary age , in Ireland Secondary schools are off (drum roll please) for 3 months and primary for 9 weeks , it makes it so so difficult for parents without family support to work. We were also told that for the first two weeks the juniors will finish at 12….for two weeks…..
Nearly everyone we know has help from family , we have absolutely none , not even in emergencies. I just found out that childcare I secured months ago can’t go ahead , literally 3 weeks before school starts again, all other places have waiting lists or because it’s Ireland they give places to plp they know.
Tbh we also had an epiphany and thought fck it , we’ll just have to sort everything out alone as always, there doesn’t seem to be any system to support working parents unless you are on a low income and even then , not everyone has family help and if you literally cannot find any childcare what exactly are you meant to do?

You cannot do both! Your baby will suffer.
it is not the fault of your Employer that the cost of living has gone up
get a grip

@saffy2 it depends on the job, I have three kids and I have worked a lot of hours but v v early mornings and evenings and nap times . Sometimes there is no actual choice.

But we aren't in lock down anymore.