To think new childcare costs screw women?

[idontknow54789]

Before getting pregnant with DC2 day rates at nurseries around here were £70-80 a day. Now DC2 is here they’ve gone up to £120 a day! My DH earns over £100k so we don’t get free childcare. It’s now looking like it’s not worth me going back to work - it’s going to cost us for me to work. I know we’re fortunate that he has a decent salary (this is London though so doesn’t go far). All nurseries are saying it’s the lack of funding for the ‘free’ hours that are forcing them to put up costs so much in a year. So the lower earner (I know not always women but often are for many many reasons) gets screwed and it disincentives them to work. I feel so deflated over this. I’ve got my hard hat on here as I know a lot will say how privileged we are he earns that but this is more of a rant about my personal situation and career and others in my position.

Gosh I'm northern England in a relatively poor area and my take home monthly wage is not far off half your childcare costs. I do a job that doesnt require any qualifications though. Still shocked me though.

I am always surprised when people think otherwise.

You can blame the patriarchy for that.
The childcare funding system is a crisis for a number of reasons.

My own nursery has just removed access to free hours. They have said that in order to meet the rocketing costs they would have to put fees up to a level that would be unsustainable for those not eligible for funded hours.

I can survive for 12 months but many won’t be able to. How does this situation help anyone?

I run a nursery and the fees went up this year because min wage did, business rates, our rent and obviously for ages the Bills are super high and our food shop for the week has increased massively too!

Can your husband just pay a bit more in his pension to bring him below the 100k

Or get your husband to work 4 days to bring him down below the 100k - and you work 4 days and then you only need 3 days childcare!

There are ways around this

quitting your job is the worst idea

You know, my husband was recently promoted to a job paying 100k. Because he thoroughly expected not to get it, he'd told a few people.

All of them bar one suggested I give up or reduce work - when actually, him requesting fewer hours makes a MUCH bigger difference to our finances.

100k of his salary doesn't anywhere near replace my salary, pension and savings on top of his own.

Plus I get 3 days a week relaxing by doing work with my feet up (we compress hours so he does one day and I do one day too).

I think for playing the long game it's worth trying to work and just sucking up the eye-watering costs. Is your job role something that you could work towards being flexible wfh?

Because the childcare issue doesn't go away when they start school. You still need to find wraparound childcare and school holidays childcare. Unless your job would accommodate term time/flexible hours. In London I imagine there is lots more options for childcare although maybe long waiting lists. Where I am holiday childcare doesn't exist literally a couple of days of sports camp 10 till 1 doesnt even make a dent on the 6 weeks. I also need a sen provision which doesn't exist. So I'm very stuck only working very part time term time in a job that is nothing related to my degree.

Households these days really do need two incomes it's ridiculous childcare is so difficult to fund or find. If it doesn't exist in your area then it's irrelevant even what you earn.

Could you imagine telling children at school if you want children when you're older one of you essentially has to give up work or work very part time most likely in a role that's not your vocation because society just doesn't give a shit. It's no wonder people aren't having children.

This is the attitude in Sweden. Fund childcare properly (we paid £100/month per child(, fund parental leave for both parents to ensure duties have a chance of being fairly split, take women in the workplace seriously. They are as highly trained and skilled as men (statistically actually more so) and getting them back into the workplace to earn money and pay tax is seen as important.

Yes I think the same but from a different angle. For those who the childcare funding benefits it means more women forced to head back into work and yet again less time bringing up thier babies. More two parent families working which means cost of living will not decrease, and more dependant on two parent families working. The CHOICE isn’t much of a choice for most families these days.

I also resonate with those who have mortgage and childcare costs yet have nothing left end of the month. It’s all off.

Wow in my area outer London it's between £5.50 and £6.50

I totally agree. We decided I would stay at home because it would cost more in fees than I could earn. As a new mum I had no idea what I was agreeing to. By the time my DC started school (there were no funded hours for us back then) my mental health was in the toilet. I had few adult friends. No hobbies as I was primary carer full time and had a huge gap on my CV.

Needless to say I would have done things differently with the benefit of hindsight but on paper it looked like the obvious choice. And those saying what about household position, the reality was I would have had to cover all illness, all days off, all appointments etc. realistically we couldn’t afford to risk his job given it was our main source of income by quite some way. It just didn’t feel feasible.

The cost of childcare really is an issue for lower earners.

Pre children I was working in hospitality wondering if I should try climb the ladder. Once I got pregnant it was quickly obvious I couldn't do a full time job where I worked because we couldn't support ourselves on my husband's salary alone and the cost of childcare would mean I wouldn't break even or if I did make a profit it would be barely anything. Add in the unpaid overtime and the unsociable hours I quit to get a part time job in the same industry but better hours and closer to home that could offer me evenings and weekends.

I've still not made it out, I'm still in the industry earning minimum wage working part time because it just isn't worth it working full time because we don't make as much money when you factor in childcare costs and I already struggle getting everything done as it is, I think working full time would actually break me.

Climbing the ladder doesn't interest me so the only thing I would be doing is paying more into a pension but to be honest when you need the money now it just can't be put first.

I also think it should be based on household income, it seems insane that 2 people earning 90K would be eligible for support when the same household income wouldn't be because one person was earning £100K and the other £80. Both obviously great wages but they would feel the pinch more than the previous couple because they would lose the support.

I get that. And I’ve sucked it up. But I think we should all be campaigning for a fully funded system that would remove barriers for all women and make climbing those ladders so much easier.
The playing field is not level. And that should worry us all.

Presumably 100k plus your salary covers the costs?

why is it only your salary being considered for childcare.

long term you will be better off paying for childcare now and maintaining your career and pension.

It's a joint cost though.
So £50 each a day, if you go back to work you'll surely earn more than £100 a day?

I think it's unfair higher rate tax payers above 100k don't get access to tax free childcare as that's only the lower rate tax discount of 20%

Thus

If only your husband could afford to cover half the cost. If only women didn't look at it as being their salary versus childcare costs, and instead expected their partner to be a - err - partner. If only your husband's job were not more important than yours, allowing him to do some of the actual work of childcare. If only...

The funding offered to nurseries by the government for the so called ‘free’ hours isn’t sufficient which means nurseries are forced to charge more to those who aren’t entitled to the funding. Effectively, parents earning over £100k who use nurseries are subsidising those who aren’t entitled to the free hours, even the ones who aren’t entitled to 30 hours but only work, say, 20 hours. It’s enfuriating.

anyone affected should write to their MP and let them know the nonsense. That is what I have done, several times. I don’t mind funding childcare as a taxpayer along with all the other taxpayers, but I don’t want my own nursery fees to subsidise it!

*are not aren’t, sorry.

No between us we earn too much but if you add in childcare costs even at 20% off it's still a lot. We pay for school holiday childcare because it's worth it having an all year round job and probably cheaper overall because the kids are occupied. I make about £10 profit per day if I'm lucky.