Hi all,
I work shifts, my DH works office hours. As a result my children attend the childminder's anywhere from 2 days a week to 5 days a week and anything inbetween.
We're looking at how our finances will improve once they get their 15 hours a week paid for by the Government but we're not going to be saving anything like as much as we thought because it seem we can't claim our full allocation because there are weeks where they're only at the childminder's for 2 days.
I completely understand the issues faced by our childminder in that we can only claim a full allocation if they're there for three days but from our point of view we are being heavily financially penalised because our children aren't there as often as they could be some weeks.
This just seems ludicrous to me - that we have to pay more because our children are there less for some weeks.
It's not even a simple case of just sending them there for a third day because that would mean we pay less and Gvt pays more so our childminder would receive the same payment in that month however she would be providing more childcare.
I just don't get it. We've been really struggling financially recently and this was meant to be my light at the end of the tunnel. I feel a bit sick now because I just don't know how to get round this, it seems SO unfair.
Any advice? How do other shift workers do it??