Help towards childcare?!

[xxx13xx]

So previously my mom helped with childcare for my eldest (5) I’m returning to work in January. I’ll have a 5 year old in FT education and an under 1. I’ll require childcare before and after school for 5 year old and all day for youngest during the week and every other weekend. I have a childminder already (luckily she’s a friend) What options do I have to help towards costs? I’ve tried to have a look online and it looks like I’ll be better off not returning to work until youngest is 3... which sounds brilliant but I NEED to work (to keep sane) I work shifts/bank hours so every week is different but I average out at around 30 hours a week at min wage if that helps with options?! 😬😬 My work place don’t provide any help towards childcare.

You'll probably get some tax credits help towards childcare.
If not the tax free childcare scheme will pay 20%.
You'll need to use a calculator like entitledto to work out if tax credits will pay more than 20%.

Tax credits got stopped in my area in March. It’s now changed over to universal credits, which no one including myself seems to have to clue about how it works? 🤷🏼‍♀️ I’m currently receiving maternity allowance, and a little bit of help from universal credits towards my rent but my payments change each month... tax credits was so much easier I hate that they changed me over to this new system.

Well you'll probably get something from UC but you will have to work out if it is more or less than tax free childcare.

I’ll have a look into this tax free childcare. Never heard of it before. Never had to pay for childcare before so it’s all new to me, and no one seems to know what help there is towards childcare costs.

You could try the Childcare Calculator which is linked from the Tax-Free Childcare section of www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

Thank you @NannyNick 😊

Is your friend a registered childminder? Or more of a casual arrangement between friends? Tax credits (so I assume uc) will only make payments if your provider is Ofsted registered

She’s fully registered with Ofstead, has been for years.

Tax free childcare will cover 20%, it works a bit like a bank account but for every 80p you put in, you can pay out £1.

UC might pay more, depending on how much you earn. But if your pay fluctuates with shift work, then your UC entitlement will change too. It's also paid in arrears so you need to fund the month, then claim it back. You would need to be very careful, as you would never know if / how much you can claim back.

Try putting your details into a benefit calculator like turn2us, that should give you an idea of how much UC you can get. If it's a lot more it's probably worth it, but if is close to 20% anyway, I'd choose tax free childcare for the lack of stress.

Thank you @ForeverBubblegum.