How to afford this?

[Inahoole]

My income is 2,984 after tax. Full time nursery is 1300 a month after the tax free part. Rent is 980, car needed for work daily is 145 a month on finance. I have gone through calculators online and can’t see I’m eligible for any help. I do have 9k savings but this was my deposit for buying a home in the next couple of years. I feel so worried about this, I don’t know whether to go part time for a bit or use savings for nursery? What do people do in this situation? I had no idea nursery was so much and assumed it would be 500 ish a month, I know I luckily have options but not sure what to do? My ex partner lives abroad and sometimes sends 100 quid but it’s not something I can rely on.

Look into childminders as they are often half the price of nursery and a more welcoming environment in my opinion.

They are ofsted inspected and have to follow the same eyfs stuff as a nursery (unless nursery has a qualified teacher on staff) so child isn't losing out on anything.

But your rc needs to pay for his child

Echo PP, look for a childminder. Ours is £45 per day, nursery ranges from £72-80

Are you claiming child benefit?
Is there any flexibility with your hours to compress so do four long days to save one nursery day?

It’s a bit rubbish. I’d spend some time on the calculators trying to see if there is a sweet spot for part time working.

Child maintenance
Child benifit
Check out childminder costs
Work compressed days so that you only need 4 days nursery
Longer term - can that rent be reduced? That's a 3 bed detached property round here. I understand you might not live somewhere as affordable, but is a smaller property, or a cheaper area possible?

Far far more needs to be done from the government, to make the non resident parent pay for their children. Not that that helps you op, but it makes me so cross.

@arethereanyleftatall completely agree, though with ops ex being abroad they'd do bugger all.

Compressed hours? I used to do 5 days work in 4 days (although in reality I did some of the hours when the children were in bed/napping so I could make nursery times work)

Have you checked if you can get any tax credits or whatever towards nursery costs?

Just run life on a shoestring knowing it will get much better when the nursery years are over. I was single mum with very similar finances and useless ex. We didn't buy any new clothes except shoes. I got everything we needed second hand /charity shops. I sold on anything we didn't need. We had lots of free /cheap fun going to different parks and libraries etc. I didn't buy anything at all for myself because but it was fine, once the nursery years were over things felt much better

Are you sure you can't claim universal credit for the childcare costs? It might be worth actually putting in a claim rather than using calculators, apparently some of them aren't accurate.

But aside from that - explore going part time, compressed hours might work too, look at childminders that might be cheaper, any family who could help out?

It's a bit shit isn't it - been there, done that. It does get easier once the nursery days are behind you though.

Tax free childcare will take those nursery fees down by 20%

I'd look at compressed hours so you do t days work in 4 and therefore only need 4 days of nursery.

I had to do 2 days a week after having twins as if I'd worked a third day the tax on that days salary would have meant the take home pay for a 3rd day would be far less than the cost of childcare! And that was a term time only nursery (teacher).

I’d look at a childminder; around mine it’s £20 per day cheaper than nursery. I put both mine into nursery when they were 3, it’s been a great and affordable balance

I would check if you are better off working part time. Sometimes it is more affordable, especially if you are then entitled to some benefits.

I do wish the government made affordable childcare a priority, as even if maintenance was increased few separated couples could afford a place each and the full cost of childcare as the overall earnings between them hasn't gone up.

With high rent and childcare you should be entitled to UC, you can't use tax free childcare and claim childcare on UC at the same time.

We saved up for nursery and used our savings. I also researched the cost of nursery it’ll be £965 a month for us so this helped me target how much I needed to save.

Join some of the universal credit groups on Facebook and get someone to do a manual calculation for you. You may well be entitled to some.

Why don't you ask at the nursery how you claim tax free childcare or ask one of your work colleagues ?

Have you done a calculation to see if you could can get any uc instead of tax free childcare? With high rent and childcare it is worth checking. You can do a calculation on entitled to.

Op says "full time nursery is x amount per month after the tax free part "

Not sure if it has been mentioned.

what about a higher paying secretary job? That is a transferable position and from my understanding churches don’t often pay much. You could probably have the same job, part time hours with more income?

also being a secretary means you may be able to offer your services to small/medium businesses on platforms like upwork. You could do this on your days off and look towards building a small service based offering as a side hustle.

When are you returning to work? I think the free hours from 1 year olds are set to kick in, in the new tax year - unless they’ve backtracked 🙄

I can't see where op has given any details about their job? Did you post on the wrong thread?

Without knowing more about the situation, this is a ridiculous comment. How do you expect our government to ensure a potential foreign national in a foreign country pays for anything?

You’re seriously suggesting OP gives up a £40k job and goes p/t so she can claim benefits and be better off?? Where do you think the “government’s” money comes from to pay benefits?? Attitudes like yours are why this country is financially fucked!

I think you would be entitled to support if your savings were £6k, you might need to use £3k of your savings and then apply for UC, do a calculation on entitled to to see.