To think this working parents eligibility criteria is unfair?

[takehischipsandputthemonmyplate]

Ready to put my tin hat on but...

I am a low earner (£25k) and partner is high earner but not exceptionally so (£110k in London) so we aren't eligible due to my
partner earning over £100k. However we have friends who combined bring in far more (almost at £200k together) but are individually just under the £100k threshold and so will be eligible for the free hours from 9 months in September 2025, thus savings thousands on childcare.

I appreciate it's a case of my diamond shoes are too tight but this does feel like a flaw in the system.

Get your DH to put an extra £10k in his pension and then you'll be eligible.

Edit to add - maybe slightly more to make absolutely sure. £12k.

We've considered that but as he's due a bonus this year (which we need to put towards paying off debt) it wouldn't work... again, I'm aware of how this sounds, my poor diamond shoes etc etc... 😂

YANBU, child benefit was the same for a while (think they fixed that), it should be both incomes.

To be clear, in principle I don't begrudge paying for nursery as a reasonably high income family - it's more the flaw in the system that means higher income families than us are able to claim the free hours while we're not

Agreed, it should be based off household income not individual

Didn’t you post about this before?

2 higher earners are paying a lot of tax so I don't have a problem with it.

No

We are in the same boat (so also wearing diamond shoes). DH put his whole bonus into his pension this year as it would haven taken him over the limit but as we have 2 DC in a London nursery, we would have lost more than that if we were no longer eligible for our TFC / funded hours. Realistically though, it will be so difficult for HMRC to change the tax system so that it works on household income rather than individual income, that i can't see them ever doing it (or at least whilst we would benefit). I believe the tories said they would try and do this before they got booted out of office, but im not sure whether its actually realistic? Martin Lewis has been campaigning about it for a while as it obviously also affects people earning 60-80k and claiming child benefit.

An interesting take

Yes it’s unfair - the whole tax system is littered with unfair.

It comes up a lot and I can understand why. We earn a lot more than OP and her DH but neither of us is over £100k so we get tfc and the NI top up (no funded hours here). London nursery fees on those salaries must be prohibitive, and will risk OP's ability to stay in the workplace.

Yes always said it’s unfair. 2 could earn 99k each or be like you

put more in pension. Only way

They didn't fix it, single parent families are still disproportionately hit if the person is a high earner, compared to two parents bringing in significantly more but still being able to claim.

I absolutely agree with this approach ^
if there are any issues e.g medical or additional needs mother often goes part time or stays at home and then it feels like she is further punished for her problems.

@BarbaraHoward it certainly has raised the question of whether or not it's worth me staying in work given the childcare costs. Given women are very often lower earners, it becomes a feminist issue; women are given the illusion of choice, but things like this strip us of that choice.

I once received a 20k bonus and was worse off than had I not received it due to this ridiculous cliff edge.

An interesting take

Not really. The women I know in these circumstances are a surgeon, consultant & a dentist. They like their jobs & are good at them so as I said don't have an issue with them receiving a tax incentive. But I do think child benefit should be universal.

The problem with household income though is what if you live with working parents, or have a sibling living with you or similar? What about split parents, step parents etc? If a step parent earns £££ but doesn't directly contribute to the child's costs, the biological resident parent will be disadvantaged. If the non resident parent is a v high earner they may or may not contribute to childcare costs but it's not counted either way...lots of complex factors at play.

I think these child/family benefits should be for everyone regardless of income and income tax should be the tool to deal with the distribution of income.

My SIL.used to rant about how unfair it was in a similar set up to yours.... Then she got a much higher paying job (and DB dropped his hours and was earning a bit less) and all of a sudden she changed her tune

I think it's fine to be on individual income, if nothing else than because it doesn't penalise the second parent for working.

If it was on household income I think a lot more women would feel pressure to become SAHM and lose their financial independence

But women fought for years for separate taxation

There are always cut offs. It's just the way it is. Some people feel they lose out that way though most people would argue that 110k is an exceptionally high income. To say it's not is bonkers

There is no perfect system. The imperfections in the current system mean that some comfortably well-off families get more support than other similarly comfortabe well-off families. That's sad, but the people who are disadvantaged can cope.

Other ways of doing it such as assessing all the combined resources of the household would definitely have a direct effect of reducing the ability of the poorest and most disadvantaged children, and those who are vulnerable due to challenging family circumstances, to access the benefits funded. I am sorry for your plight but I am quite happy for you to be the ones getting the impact of the system's imperfections rather than those children.

It is a high income, but in most parts of London it wouldn't buy a house that would be considered an "average family home" in most parts of the country, and nursery fees in London are way higher than in other areas due to higher premises rent and London weighting for the staff. You won't be living the high life in London on that salary unless you had family help to buy your home.