Loss of 30 free hours will cost me £37,000 of pre-tax income

[ChildcareCost]

9 month olds are eligible for 30 free hours from September. If you earn over the threshold, you do not get this 30 free hours plus the £2,000 of tax-free childcare.

My nursery typically charges £2,150 a month for an under-3. This works out at c. £10 an hour assuming a 50 hour week (open 8-6).

They have circulated the free hours schedule this week, and the monthly cost with 30 free hours is £1,100 hours for an under-3 (noting funded hours only cover 38 weeks).

This means the loss of the 30 free hours will cost me £12,600 a year. Plus of course the loss of tax-free childcare at £2,000.

So, I need to earn an extra £14,600 net just to cover the cost of not being eligible for this scheme.

To earn that £14,600 over £100,000 – I need to earn a gross figure of £137,000.

Surely this is not fair on the parents excluded from the scheme? It doesn't seem proportional that I need to earn an extra £37,000 just to recoup the loss as a result of not being eligible!

Surely I’m not the only person in this situation?!

Most savvy people who need the funding and earn around the cut off will pay more into their pension so their gross salary is 99,000 rather than 100,000

You could always pay extra into your pension to bring your income below £100k and then its problem solved.

YABVU. If you earn over £100000 you do not require the tax payers’ support for childcare. To suggest so shows you are out of touch with the average working person and extremely greedy. The funded childcare hours are there to support those who couldn’t afford to work otherwise.

common, at such an insane salary, you surely have a good account who can sort this.

and yes, there are always thresholds. Noone on over 100k needs help with childcare costs.

I earn over £160,000 so can’t salary sacrifice to get under the threshold. I could go part time and salary sacrifice to get there - but as a woman in a male dominated industry where I want to progress, that’s not optimal.

But - even if I were able to, if I salary sacrificed from £137,000 to £99,000 - the government would lose over £20,000 in tax revenue.

Plus have to pay the extra £14,600 towards my childcare.

So they are vastly worse off than if I am able to claim it surely?

But you don't need to earn an extra £37k. You're not eligible for the scheme so you have to pay £12,600. Your calculations would be like me saying as I don't drive a car or haven't had a hospital admission in over 30 years I'm effectively 'losing out'.

There are always winners and losers in these situations.

My 3 year old is eligible next month, same as allllll the children younger than him. He did get 15 hours from Easter though.

My 5 year old I had to wait until 3 too.

Always seem to move at the wrong time, paid stamp duty as a first time buyer, moved in between stamp duty holidays etc.

It is frustrating but I just have to let it go, there will always be what if's but honestly, just don't compare yourself to others.

Also, it sounds like there may be work arounds for you, I would just look at it as short term pain for long term gain though. As the rest of us on much lower salaries do - when both mine were at nursery to begin with, it was almost my whole salary, by next year I will feel so rich just to be back with the money I had pre children.

It's a couple of years, whack up your pension and old you will thank young you for doing it. Or just accept that on £160k a year you aren't quite the target audience for getting help for childcare.

I think anyone earning over £160k and then bitching about someone, like a nurse, getting funded childcare is the winner of the 'anti-social champion' award 2025.

You earn over £160k you pay for your own child care.
cheeky fucker

There is a cost to me of not being eligible to the scheme - and that is £37,000 pre-tax.

Given people seem to be doing lots of tax and pension planning to be able to claim these, it is not so simple as ‘oh well you aren’t eligible so there’s no issue’.

There’s a point where working less may make more sense financially.

I have no issue with nurses getting funded childcare, I’m a huge advocate for universal childcare.

I’m not a huge advocate for being excluded from using it at huge personal cost to myself while paying very high tax rates - and the 30 hours loss is huge.

What a weird take on it OP.

You are not eligible.

You earn £160k! You are in the top 1% of earners. Nurseries and tax payers should not be subsidising you - you should be subsidising them!

I can't believe you earn over £160k a year and are complaining about having to pay for childcare.

Not the only one but very few people earn at that level. there will be very few who have the 'problem' of having to pay for their own childcare because they are on 160k annually. If you earn that much, I would have assumed you are a tiny bit clever and have worked that out for yourself that it isn't a common issue?

My heart bleeds.

20 years ago I was an nhs employee on about 35k. No free hours, I paid every penny of full time childcare. I think I got a discount the year before they went to school at 3/4 but I think it was about £100 off a £1k bill. It was a discount if you had to find childcare for 15 hours a week, which was useless if you worked full time.

check your privilege.

Do I hear an orchestra of tiny violins?

I earn over £160,000

And at that point you lost me.

Tell me how out of touch you are with actual financial hardships without telling me

Wow. I can't comprehend someone earning £160k whinging that they have to pay for their own childcare.

P.S. I'm on less than a sixth of what you earn and don't get any free hours as I'm in Wales.

This - why on earth should the state pay for childcare (limited time of requirement) when you earn so far above the national average, its a benefit.

I completely object to the cliff edge, but I 100% think that its crazy to be complaining you dont get extra money from the government when you have so much.

Exactly this!! Someone earning 160k does not need free childcare!

With that salary you expect free childcare?

I am on the threshold and pay more into my pension to take me under.

For those saying you don’t need childcare help on this salary - this does my head in. I am the main earner in our house. DH’s job doesn’t pay well but is an important role in society and he enjoys it. We live in an expensive part of the country and have no family help with childcare. DDs nursery bill for 4 days is over £2k a month. With mortgage on our perfectly normal small terraced house, and the usual bills, and upkeep of two old cars we are not rolling around in banknotes like Scrooge McDuck jetting off on fancy holidays and getting Deliveroo every night. Yes we are incredibly fortunate and I am not complaining/taking it for granted/feeling hard done by but it wasn’t always like this, and I worked hard to get where I am in my career.

Yes we could move to a cheaper part of the country. But with both of us having been through two life-threatening illnesses and needing to rely heavily on friends and neighbours, I’m not in a rush to move somewhere where we don’t know anyone and start from scratch.

I await flaming.