Costs in excess of 30 free hours

[Katiek987]

Hi everyone

I am after some help with what childcare costs in reality look like. I’m a single woman looking to have a baby on my own but want to be realistic about whether this is financially possible. Say I was eligible for the 30 free hours from 9 months from September 2025, and I needed full time childcare, what should I expect to need to budget? I live in the SE. Am really struggling to get a true idea with the 30 hours only being over 38 weeks and all the added costs (food, nappies etc). Could be nursery or a childminder, nanny would be too expensive!

if anyone could please give me a steer or point me i the direction of another thread (I did look but couldn’t see) x

A small additional cost to factor in is also thay although won't need childcare when you are taking annual leave, most settings will expect you to pay for it.
(I do suggest though that you book yourself some days off and still send you child to nursery without any guilt!)

With 30 free hours for a 3 year old we currently pay £1190 for full time care. So ~£1000 per month with tax free childcare. Under 2s are more expensive due to the ratios required so guess it could be more like £1100.

So @Riddlemethisplz do you mean £400 per month on top of free hours and tax-free?
Are you in London/SE?

My daughter goes 2 full days a month 7-1830. We're in east anglia. We stretch our 30 hours across 52 weeks. Our bill is £340.80 with 20% tax free we then pay £272.60ish a month. If that helps atall.

Outskirts of London here. Full time 5 days is just over £1500 a month, which will drop to around £800 (if my maths is right 😬) when our 30hrs kicks in. Using taxfree childcare means im looking at topping up our childcare account with around £650 a month? Significantly less than what we pay right now so I cannot wait!!

Please be aware that nursery settings can choose how the 30 funded (not free!) hours are administered.

This means that they may only have a certain number of funded places available. Or it could mean that they only offer the sessions on 3 particular days a week. Or the funded sessions are only between 7.30am and 1.30pm daily.

Any hours outside these restrictions could then be charged for, often at a higher rate.

Settings are also able to charge an amount each day for 'resources'.

This is all due to massive underfunding by the government.

I pay just under £500 for 3.5 days a week, after the funded hours have been applied. SE within a 45m to an hour train to Waterloo.

I'd be amazed if the 30 free hours for 1 year old comes in. There aren't enough providers, Labour will probably win the election and it's not in their manifesto. Plan for the 30 hours from the term after the 3rd birthday, anything else would be a bonus.

We are currently expecting and had to do a similar budgeting exercise - when the free hours kick in we have estimated it will be approximately £800 per month for 4 days per week. We are condensing our hours so we can have every other Friday off and alternate to reduce costs so might be something worth considering if your employer allows it!

My son is at a community nursery so it’s cheaper than the private ones.
he attends 5 days a week. 8-6. I use the stretched funding. Meals are included.

My bill is £535.50 a month. UC covers £450 of that.
A full time place would be £900 with no funding.
We’re in Birmingham.
If he was still at the private one he attended full time would be £1100 and around £7-800 with funding as they added lots of extras.

I agree with this.

We're in Hampshire, 1yo attends 4 days a week at £92 a day (7am-5pm)
Obviously we don't qualify for any free hours yet but I won't be holding my breath any government to honour the 30 hours agreement - there's just not enough staff.
Places in my area are competitive (it was a £50 holding fee when she was 7 weeks old just to be considered for a place)
Tax relief account is gold, definitely set that up.
Fees are terrible but like others have suggested I'd ask around your area first. We did before having DC so wasn't too shocked when the time came!

If your usual fee is £92, the nursery will be losing over £60 a day by offering funding (assuming 6 hours funding a day on average). I've no doubt the government will press ahead with the changes, but I've seen a lot of providers say they won't provide it as it's not viable, or they will and will go bankrupt. And that's without factoring in the influx that providers will have, of people who didn't need spaces before but want it because it's now free.

but I won't be holding my breath any government to honour the 30 hours agreement-there's just not enough staff.

Ansolutely. The government might say you are ‘entitled’ to 30 hours subsidised childcare for your 9 month old, but if there’s no nursery close to you willing to accept the pitiful funding offered, then you’ll have to pay full whack, travel miles in the hood of finding one that will take you on, or go without childcare.

It’s rather like NHS dentistry-if you make it not worth the while of dentists to treat patients on the NHS, then they won’t and they will spend their time treating patients privately instead. There are so many people now who can’t get an nhs dentist-nurseries will be exactly the same and will only take on people who are prepared to pay the full rates. 3 nurseries near us closed at the end of the summer as it simply wasn’t a viable for them to run as a business.

This is all very sobering, and good to factor in. Don’t know how people afford the early years on their own!

SE london/ Kent border. 30 funded hours gets us 2 days at nursery. Nursery is £83 a day and we have to provide nappies and wipes. Some give a discount if you are full time. Hope that helps!

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/619f6f888fa8f5037ac74281/Early_years_funding_rates_and_step-by-step_calculation_for_2022_to_2023.xlsx

Have a look at this document it outlines what a provider gets paid in each area and if you then look at what they charge as a non funded rate and you can make a rough guess at the extra there will be!

It's why so many women in couples (as typically the lower earner) don't go back to work. It's why so many single mums don't work. It's why so many couples have bigger gaps between children so that one is at school before the other needs childcare.

For us, DH and I earn roughly evenly. Nursery pretty much wipes out one salary. It's a stretch. We don't save. We make choices. BUT we are fortunate we can make it work and it's a short term thing which keeps us both on the career ladder, which we hope will be worth it in the long term. DC2 starts school next year. We'll be taking her out of nursery to go to the far cheaper holiday camp once it opens. Honestly counting the months until we are free of nursery fees. Eight to go.

Oh yes, I haven’t factored in the tax free childcare allowance. £2000 a year. It’s better than a poke in the eye. When 30 free hours kicks in, it’ll pay for two and a bit months of four days a week (London).

Really depends on where exactly you are childminders tend to be more flexible on the hours they offer funding in my area nursery has core hours 9 to 3 you pay extra outside this while childminders do the maximum 10 hours a day if needed.
Hillingdon rates for childminder can be £5 in the south and £8.50 in the north of borough.

Yes I mean an additional £400 for full time, if she did full time wrap around which she doesn’t. She does 2 days so it’s £55 a week.

@Riddlemethisplz I think it was £64 a day so per calendar month worked our at £330 a month. Bare in mind that was total including the funded hours so total I paid for the month was £330 for 3 days a week. All food included no top ups required 7am-6pm

So mine is on Monday thurs and Friday 8:45-3:30 and then 7:30-5:30 weds and Thursday, so with funded hrs but no TF it’s £55 a week

Just to check OP, do you earn less than £100k? As this affects your entitlement to both the 30 free hours and the tax free assistance.

It’s good to go into it with your eyes open, and for us has been a greater cost than our mortgage, and at the expense of holidays etc. But it’s a short term pain, it’s enabled us both (although mainly me in practice as the person with more career flexibility) to keep progressing our careers, and importantly keep paying into my work pension for an extra 3 years, which will be worth it in the future. Just try and aim for a summer baby as it’ll save you a fortune (just joking, but seriously I’m paying 10k extra as the parent of an autumn child compared to my friends with summer born kids 6 weeks older who started school a year earlier!!)