To be frustrated that I’m worse off work working more?

[Financialfrustration]

Name changed.

My husband and I both work. I’m part time just now, but plan to go back to full time by gradually increasing hours.

Currently we are managing without paying for childcare because I have holidays to use which I accrued while on maternity leave, plus using family. These holidays will run out soon, so we are going to pay for nursery.

If I remain 3 days we are entitled to £95 universal credit and £50 Scottish Child Payment per week, which leaves us of a balance of 79p per week which we have to pay towards childcare for the three days we require it.

If I go to 4 days per week, we are entitled to £64 universal credit and £50 Scottish child payment, leaving us £77 to pay for childcare for the 4 days we require it.

Working 3 days per week I take home £338 per week, working 4 days I take home £466. That’s £108 of a difference.

In other words, if I work an extra day per week, by the time I pay £77 towards childcare, I am only £31 better off. Off that £31 I also need to sort after school care for my eldest, and get everyone to school/nursery/work on time by public transport (possibly taxi as it’s going to be impossible to do with the drop off times otherwise, and my partner is already at work by the time we leave)

I find it absolutely crazy that working more actually doesn’t pay, even for someone who has a “well paid” job.

@Overthebow why on earth shouldn’t it be there to help part timers? You do realise a huge number of those who are part time are so due to the cost of childcare? Without the tax free childcare help it wouldn’t be worth me working at all so I’d stop.

When we tried to ask for help from the CAB in the past they weren’t great. I suppose all I can do is actually fill in the relevant applications to see how that goes.

You can’t get tax free childcare if you get uc, but presumably you’d be claiming help with childcare from uc instead?

It sounds like the roles are similar but not identical.

Flexible childcare would be perfect, this was our initial hope and the nursery initially said they could do this providing they had the space, but have now said they are unlikely to have the space as the demand has increased. If we only needed to pay for days we used then I wouldn’t mind so much.

He takes me to work and gets the eldest to school when he is off already - I don’t drive so I can’t take his car.

And no, we didn’t just calculate it when the child was born. We planned to have me ft and a family member was going to do childcare on the days we needed it, but unfortunately due to death and serious illness this is no longer possible. We also had enough savings to cover things for two years of me being part time, but due to the cost of living situation (increased mortgage and energy mainly, but also unexpectedly needing a new car) the money has ran out faster than we anticipated.

This. It should not be a choice really. What if we all decided to work part time?
You will still be better off. I can't believe it's even an option. Benefits should be for people who need them.

This issue wouldn’t exist if I went full time, as my earnings would be more.

So you've decided to work less and are now annoyed that you are financially worse off? Sorry, couldn't resist.

There's always a horrible middle ground where it's barely worth it. Like when you get a pay rise that increases your tax or reduces your benefits. It seems like the choice is 3 days or 5 days and 4 days is the horrible middle ground in this situation.

I find it absolutely crazy that working more actually doesn’t pay, even for someone who has a “well paid” job.

But it does. The figures you've given are not those of a "well paid" job 🤷‍♀️

The higher earner should work full time and lower earner work around kids drop off and collection. In your case you should go back.full time and get DH to go part time. You'd have more money then. Once all kids at school both go full time. My dd went back to work full time when child was 1 year old. Her full time salary, with both sacrifice towards nursery fees, meant she only got £240 pcm but she still worked full time, building her pension and got a promotion too. It's too easy to stay home or work part time and just claim benefits. Until government make part time workers work 24 hours each week before giving top up people will just prefer working 16 hours and getting handout top-up.

Well that says more about the state of the teaching industry when a teacher is barely breaking even over childcare fees to be fair

So just work three days then increase once child is at school.

No prizes for killing yourself op

I wouldn’t say “financially struggling” is the best way to describe it, but we are less comfortable than we would like. Right now we are both part time and we are not claiming anything. My frustration is purely with childcare costs and how they discourage people from working more. I’d imagine this situation is even more acute for those on a lower income.

Yes - I’m not complaining at having to pay for childcare - I’m complaining at how the childcare costs covered by the government are allocated. If they had a financial “pot” for each child that you could use for childcare however you like, the system would be far more beneficial.

Agree OP me and DH EARN 'average' salaries. We no longer claim UC as DS gets 30 free hours. I thought of increasing my hours but have done the maths anything extra I earn after tax and NI will go from the childcare fees (I will have to pay extra as it will go over the 30 hours.) Me and DH do share the paying the fees but to me the pot at the end collectively is still down. I would sooner spend the extra time with DS.

For the record I’m only part time now because I’d still be on maternity leave otherwise and I’ve not claimed any benefits up to now as I’m using my holidays to cover childcare. My frustration is with the system as I always believed working would pay and I guess I never really appreciated WHY so many people choose to go part-time.

But yes, it’s a middle ground situation. And I’m lucky I’ve got choices.

I consider a FTE of £43k to be a fairlywell paying job, considering it’s significantly more than the national average, but if you disagree then please support the teachers in their strike action.

It's basically down to business's to pay better, but then also the public would have to pay more for x products due to the business passing on the extra costs.

I think you are implying I’m some sort of benefit scrounger when I’m obviously not. We have both worked full time for almost our whole working career and have never claimed a penny of help in our lives. I had to return from mat leave when my son was 8 months old, the plan was that we would use family for childcare but unfortunately due to death and serious illness that is no longer possible.

This is the case for every family out there. Although on your salary, you're luckier than most in that you still qualify for universal credit.

It's a temporary thing, you won't pay childcare forever. Just be grateful you don't have a child with addition needs or disabilities, it's crippling financially.

It wasn’t so much a personal rant as much as it was a rant about the whole system.

Personally I'd stay at 3 days until you get 30 hours nursery for one of them.

All that aggro and stress I couldn't be doing with just to come out even money wise.

People seem to turn their nose up when women say they don't want to work for basically free after nursery fees etc are paid for.

Hope you manage to work it all out.