Does anyone have experience of universal credit - childcare element?

[ChickenNugget86]

Hi I'm just looking for advice or any experience of receiving the childcare contribution via unversial credit.

I'm currently 20 weeks pregnant with my first baby due May 2020. It's our first child and always knew if we were to start a family it would be a money worry. For the past few years we've saved to help the nursery/childminder costs when I return back to work. (we don't have family who can help)

I understand about the 30 free hours the term after the child turns 3 and aware some 2 year olds get funded spaces. I also know about tax free childcare which we could use to help.

After going on Martin Lewis's website I noticed it said 'if you have a joint income of below 40k, you may be entitled to help with nursery costs'

To my surprise I went on the online calculator and put my current wage and DH's and it said we would receive - £480 every 4 weeks to help with the nursery costs.

This was based on my wage of £820 a month after deductions and DH's wage of £1395 a month after duductions and a private Nursery setting which costs £190 a week.

I noticed on the calculator it said if you had savings over 6k (which we do at the moment) that the amount would go down.

I've asked friends with children about it and they said they didn't know about it. If it's true then obviously it would be a great help.

I don't earn much as a teaching assistant but love my job and would like to go back to work after maternity leave but with no help towards childcare I do feel like I'd be working for very little. Surely I should be encouraged to go back to work?? I know the election was only the other day but hoping anyone can explain if they know about it.

Thanks

I dont have first hand experience but my friend got the childcare element of UC and i know about it because unfortunately she found it a massive pain in the arse.

Her and her dh work her only just less than ft. They got different amounts each month based on what they earnt. She is paid weekly so on months where she got paid 5 x instead of 4, they got a massively reduced amount or nothing at all.

They also expect you to attend a meeting in the beginning i think, and my friend had to send every childcare invoice with a reciept signed by the nursery every month to get the payment. Her nursery were excellent and always got her this on time but my nursery are shit with stuff like that so if i was claiming id be up shit creek.

She also had problems with past things creating issues. She used to recieve a payment when she was widowed of her prev husband over 10 years ago. This stopped when she moved in with current husband i think about 6 years ago. UC had her down as recieving it (though it only flagged every other month or so) so payments were cut and stopped randomly.

She had lots of issues but had to persevere because they needed the money to keep her daughter in nursery.

If i could avoid it and not suffer too much by doing that then i absolutely would because it was a hellish few years for my friend.

I use tax free childcare and its been fine so far. Its capped at 2 grand a year but still quite a saving.

Thank you for the reply. I had a feeling it would be a pain in the arse to get.

My friends who do receive UC are in the benefit system and one of my friends did receive 85% off her childcare but I don't think I'll get that.

In my area the local childminders charge £34-38 a day and a private nursery ranges from £39-45 a day. I earn £40 a day but my worry is if I take a career break then I'll find it hard to get back into work and I am currently on a permanent contract so don't want to give it up.

We have a joint bank account so obviously I'll take into account DH wage which is around £70 a day. We get paid the same pretty much each month.

As I have the half terms off I'm hoping to find a childminder or nursery with term time only contracts, there are a few in my area.

Is the tax free childcare quite simple to do? I know this is a way off yet but I want to have a rough idea.

I'm basing that I'm not going to get help with childcare via UC so roughly my childcare bill would be £7410 if it was £190 a week for 39 weeks. The tax free childcare would help reduce it. Was thinking of using savings for half the cost and the other half out of our wages.

Yeah i know what you mean. I went back to work PT after mat leave but that was in the days of tax credits. We didnt get much and then when i went FT a few months after it was bugger all so started tax free childcare.

Yes its dead easy you sign up online, give them all your details and they tell you whether youre eligible which you will be.

They put in £2 for ever £8 you put in.

So if your bill was £1000 youd put in £800 and theyd put in £200.

You can only have £500 off them every quarter though so i personally tried to split it so i wasnt paying more on every third month if that makes sense?

So instead of £800, £800 then £900 id do maybe £833 each month because you can let funds build up in your account.

Does that make sense? i find it easy to use but hard to explain how to best use it!

Thanks, I'm thinking of maybe dropping a day so I can spend some time in the week with him/her. On my deductions it's only unison, pension and national insurance that goes out. I don't have to pay tax as I earn below 11k.

DH pays tax so hoping it will be ok him using the tax free childcare or do I have to be paying tax too? Its a mindfield.

Good to hear its quite easy to do. I'm sure I'll pick it up. Thanks for the tip about sharing it out a bit.

I have a rough idea that full time nursery in my area will cost £760 a month (don't have a clue how it works on a term only contract) so I'd put £530ish (maybe more) into that account then the tax free part would top it up to £760..... With the £530 I'd use maybe £300 out of savings and £230 out of wages. Is that correct or am I totally wrong?!

You both have to be earning a certain amount a week.

I think its about £132 a week but Google "childcare choices" put in your details and it will confirm if youre eligible.

No if you put £510 in theyd put in £127.50

So to work out their contribution you divide the amount you put into the account (not the full bill) by 8 then times by 2.

Also id be really wary of using savings for childcare because youll be doing this for a good 2 plus years. 30 hours for over 3s doenst start on their birthday its starts the term after. For ds hos bday is april but we didnt get his hours until sept to that is something to consider too!

If u look at tax free childcare on the martin lewis money saving expert website they explain it all probably considerably better than me

If I dropped a day I would just about earn over £132 a week. I've been on that website before so will have another read. Just find it confusing at the moment and it's difficult when your friends are in a totally different situation to you.

Thanks for the maths sum I was struggling to work it out! I always knew it would be difficult paying for childcare with our joint wages so that's one of the reasons I've tried to save over the past few years.

I feel awful using all our savings on childcare but feel I have no choice. There is no way possible after bills, mortgage etc... That I could afford £800 ish to come out a month. At a stretch maybe £300,£400.... Its quite depressing.

I'm not going to rule UC out, it could change by the time I go back to work so will have to see what happens, but it sounds very difficult to claim. Hopefully some other people can share experiences of it working fingers crossed

Thanks for all your help