Avoiding the childcare trap

[Difficultquestionplz]

hi! I know there are a lot of high earners in this group so maybe other mums can help me. I am caught up in the 100k childcare trap.
back in the days when my salary was around the 100k mark, I was able to top up the pension, but that was before my child was born. Now my child has turned 3 and was hoping to finally get a little relief but it looks like it’s not the case…
currently my salary is higher, almost exclusively due to sales commissions and I am going to finish the fiscal at 260k. My husband is livid that he loses on benefits because of my salary and I am actually wondering if there is anything I could do in terms of investments that can be deducted that could bring me below the threshold.
I am not using any financial advisor because honestly when I looked into it they wanted to take 3% management fee just to manage the easy bits (pension, isas) and it obviously compounds.

thank you for helping
(please be kind, I don’t come from money, my job is paying well now but also highly at risk due to performance management or constant layoffs mixed with the joy of nepotism, unconscious bias/ blatant sexism of a male dominated environment)

OP if you cant qualify for state help without radically manipulating your earning, you probably don't need state help.

my job is paying well now but also highly at risk

Well, if you lose the job and are in real financial straits, the government has benefits that are there to help you.

Why should people, who earn way less than you, pay tax so that you can get free child care and your husband get any benefits at all? There is no magic money pot. It's OUR taxes that pay for everything..🙄.

Are 15hours of the 30 funded hours not for education and therefore not means-tested? They are in Wales, anyway. I mean, we fell into the ‘childcare trap’ OP, but we’re company directors so easily rectified for the next few years until DC leave childcare. I’m not even sure this is a genuine post because even full time childcare in an expensive part of the country isn’t going to be crippling if you truly earn £260k pre-tax. Unless, of course, you and your DH are massively over extended? FWIW it doesn’t always give you a massive discount in some nurseries.

OP is the tax payers.

The top 1% of earners pay 30% of all income tax.

Thank you for explaining this. I did not mean to wind people up. Just looking for real life experience from people who may be experiencing this as well.

Yet people are slow to criticise the fact that someone on £100k can apply for and get PIP. Equal in the sense of self entitlement. But that’s the UK for you. Everyone wants a piece of the benefit pie….

Jesus fucking christ

There is no way. Your earnings are too high. There are definitely things you can do to pull salary down but you aren’t going to get the bracket you need to be in for childcare.

Also you really should be getting financial advice in terms of pension, investments etc. particularly as the job is not secure.

Her tax will more than cover her childcare.

So in response to this, OP, specially the sentence "instead of financing it for the rest of you lot!!" from the pp you quoted, I/we finance our own childcare, thank you very much! The tax free scheme helps a bit, but I'm not a beggar at your door, rich people, expecting you to finance me.
This notion that only the rich oays for everyone is so ridiculous. Yes you pay more in tax, but I'm still a tax payer, and still pay for childcare. We all know the "free" hours aren't free. I still pay £500 a month for my 4 yo and £800 a month for my baby, and they don't go full time (or I'd spend around 12k a year) 🙄🙄🙄

Are you joking? Do you seriously need it spelling out to you in how many ways OP benefits from the tax she pays? Or are you one of those "squeeze every drop you can get" types? Plenty of those about. Wonder why there's no bloody money in the pot.

Err... you do what the rest of us do.... tighten your belt and ride it out until the kids are older and cost less (or don't need childcare). Kids cost money.

Or... change jobs and earn under the threshold.

YABU. Stop trying to fiddle the system- it’s as bad as the people at the other end claiming sickness and disability when they don’t need it.

DH and I don’t come from money either. I earn an average amount, he earns £150k. Consequently, we get no extras bar the 15 free nursery hours in term time when DS was at nursery, and have to pay back our child benefit.

It’s a bit annoying when we’ve got friends where they both earn £80k so are under the threshold and got more free nursery hours, but it’s just how it is. Overall, we’ll be better off in the long term because DH earns so well.

You have to suck it up and thank your lucky stars you’re not one of the poor souls trying to scrape by on £25k a year, as millions of British workers do.

Op why is your husband so angry?
What does he earn?

Childcare is very expensive in the UK but asumming he earns say 40k I don’t understand his anger? Presumably his lifestyle is affected in a very positive way by your earnings?

Why is he livid?

This reads like a Daily Telegraph article. ‘Jocasta was sad because she could only afford caviar for three of her ponies.’

Just to let you know I don't even have enough cash to buy my ds new shoes this term.

It’s exactly this! Whilst the focus is on ‘are some people exaggerating their illnesses to claim PIP’ we have high earners trying to minimise their income to claim benefits.

OP is one of millions of tax payers. Her need is far less than a huge number of people. Should she trump them?

I know right? And people get upset about families on benefits with a minimum wage household income having an extra child or claiming PIP or whatever.

Children are a choice.
Disability is not.

Wow, that got me riled up for the Saturday 🤣 Gonna go and spend that angry energy on some gardening 😆😆

The notion is that the rich pay a disproportionate amount is true. They do. And people do need to realise this. Creating a society where being rich is demonised or the country where your worse off than any other will result in what? People leaving. It’s that simple. They will take the wealth with them. And then what do we have?

I think it’s hilarious that you actually thought you’d come here and not get flamed with a post like that!

Agree SO much fakery. MN seems to be slowly dying.