Childcare reform: what about parents not on benefits?

[justwren]

So universal credit claimants will be entitled to more help with childcare costs as announced by the govt this week.
What about those who aren't on benefits?
We're the ones who have to be finding 14k a year for one child in nursery. I'm not entitled to any benefits because my husband earns £34k a year. That's hardly millions!

Why is there no support being offered to the families who are having to pay for it in its entirety?

@Fundays12 i know it’s not hugely helpful but the 30 hours can be stretched. It’s then about 22 hours a week year round, which could give you a couple of full days or even 4 afternoons/mornings depending on how flexible the work is you found.

I think the key here is that your take home salary is actually £27k. Leaving you with £13k.

If your take home salary was £13k, then your taxed income would be about £13,250.

Which means that £34k, becomes an income of £13,250 when you deduct childcare after tax. It's counter intuitive but we're shocking. How does a family live off of £13,250? That wouldn't cover rent here.

It's not 30 free hours- it's fifteen when they get to three

I don't work due to serious health issues. We're not entitled to any benefits at all, this has all been explored.

Indeed.
This is the problem with the benefits system. If you happen to work full time but your hourly rate isn’t that high, you’re hung out to dry. It is an unfair system,
No two ways about it.

If you don't work why do you need to spend so much on childcare? If you are so unwell that you aren't able to care for your dc have you explored other options for this. Support services/non means tested disability payments?

In which case you’ll be able to claim PIP (varying levels depending on your need) and ESA, in some areas this can also enable you to claim help towards council tax.

If you don't work why do you need full time childcare? If you are unable to work you are eligible for various helps.

You need to claim PIP

If you were on benefits both of you would need to be working unless one of you were a carer or on the right level of disability

Alternatively if you have a sick note you can try claim universal credit

OP if you aren’t working why do you need help towards childcare? If you have a health condition that means you can’t work you will be getting PIP and potentially other benefits which you could put towards childcare.

Yes, you need to claim disability benefit if you can't work and you are struggling.

I am confused, why are people on benefits getting more help with childcare when presumably they aren't working so don't need childcare? We are on low income but not low enough for UC so have to pay for everything.

It is for people who are working

We work and receive benefits, the vast majority of benefit spend goes to working people. The govt will cover up to 85% of childcare in many cases, the OPs issue is that she doesn't work.

The increase in the childcare amount on UC will mean more people are eligible for UC

I still don’t understand why you need so much childcare if you’re not working. If you need it because of health conditions PIP would help with that

The change is being made to get people into work for whom childcare costs are the barrier.

You are already in work.

That's why.

PS I get it and sympathise. I never had any govt help with childcare and no free hours either.

The OP isn't in work.

So why is she forking out for childcare?

It is stopping working people from working more though. I earn a good salary as does my husband so we don’t get UC. I work 4 days per week compressed into 3 days as it’s not economical for me to work full time. We max out the tax free childcare help on three days and if I went full time we would lose child benefit. The amount extra is take home if I went full time would be less than the additional childcare cost. I would go full time if childcare was cheaper and it would benefit the economy as I’d be a high tax payer.

It is a complete joke. People eligible for UC can claim up to 85% of childcare costs back already. The "tax free childcare" everyone else gets isn't tax free for many people, the discount is only 20% and it has a cap of £2000 discount per child per year. The "30 hours" is actually only 22 hours per week and even then doesn't cover the full cost for those hours.

Single parents who work will obviously need more childcare than a couple would or have less earning capability as they only have 24 hours per day to do everything and yet there is no additional allowance for them to reflect this. There is also no additional childcare funding for DCs with disabilities who need much more expensive care. Labours' suggested plans aren't much better: again no additional provision for single parents and focused entirely on mainstream wrap around care etc, no provision to provide extra funds to parents of disabled DC who need 1:1 care.

All politicians are absolutely clueless on this issue. And the reforms needed to the tax system and thresholds for the tax free allowance, child benefit, "tax-free childcare" and funded hours earnings cut-off, etc.

As a PP explained a properly funded childcare system pays for itself in productivity and tax revenue gains many times over. That's why other countries fund it, not out of the goodness of their hearts. Unfortunately our country is run by idiots and only has idiots to choose from even when we have an election so it's unlikely that sensible reforms to tax and childcare etc will be made.

Are you working ? If not do you want to work ? Have you checked whether you are eligible for UC ?

@justwren it is 30hrs as long as neither parent earns over £100k

Problem at the moment and with the budget is they don’t offer helps to the majority of families that use nursery for childcare - where both parents working full time so earn above the UC, with one or 2 kids.
not sure about other area, our area is £1600 average for 1 child full time all year below 3 years old. That’s £19k average (after £2k tax credit). For most, you just can’t afford if you have two kids below school age.
by choice, we choose to only have 1 kid as I want to continue working. and we barely can make it break even each month with the rise of living costs at the moment.
for lots of woman, it’s just makes sense to stay home or part time and use the 15hours. Which I totally get it why. This budget helps doesn’t help anything for us! And literally there isn’t much helps below 3 years old from the government to help woman back into work, or higher income work.