Paying mum for childcare

[SaraLou88]

My mum is our childcare, she has our daughter 3 days a week, does pick up and drop off and all meals etc. it’s a blessing. We feel so lucky to have this arrangement as we constantly hear about nurseries being so expensive and then they don’t take them when they’re not well. Other people’s children getting bitten and hit etc. so for us, we’re happier she’s not in nursery until she’s older. I just wondered though, how much is a day at nursery typically?

we’re paying my mum £1400 a month as that replaces the salary she left to do this for us. She’s not at retirement age and they’re not financially able to not worry, so this is the solution we came up with. I just wondered though, is this alot? People say all the time nurseries are expensive so I’m not sure now!

I'd say that's a lot! My little one goes 3 days a week for £800 a month. We're in the SE.
And because it's a registered childcare provider, we use the governments tax free childcare to pay for it. So it costs us less than that.

How old is your little one? you'll be missing out on funded hours too.

Thanks for your reply, she’s 18m and we’re in SE too. That’s good to know the rough cost and I did think it would likely be cheaper. It’s really helpful to know what sort of costs we might be looking at here.

There are many more benefits we get to this that we’re happy paying the extra for. I’d struggle with my job doing the pick up and drop off and my other half has set up his own business so we don’t have lot of flexibility there at the moment. I think though in a year we might look at moving her partially into nursery and we will then discuss with my mum how this will work. We will never leave my mum without as she’s done this for us.

I pay my mum for childcare too. If you register her as an employee of your husbands business, you can claim tax relief on her PAYE costs, and she can access the tax free allowance. It's a win/win. Speak to your accountant.

My 2yo is with a childminder but I looked at our nearest nursery recently and that would be about £1500 for 3 days

Our nursery would charge £450 a month for 3 days taking into account the new 15 hour funding

That's huge!

We pay £340 a month for 7:30am-4pm for 3 days a week for DD. Term time only as DH teacher so we get the full funded 15 hours.

1400 for 3 days is a lot, £100 a day is more than the vast majority of nurseries plus you would also have free hours and tax free childcare.
But equally you will have a lot more flexibility than a nursery and you the agreement was for your mum to leave her job to do this.

I'm not sure it's like for like to compare to a nursery. A nanny is a better comparison and I don't that sounds excessive for a nanny

You can't really compare it against the cost of a nursery or childminder when what you really have is a nanny, and a very accommodating one at that. You haven't said what hours she actually works and how much flexibility you expect but depending on that $1400 may be a bargain.

That's a lot, you'd be about £60-£70 a day here, so £700-£800 per month.

But you'd get that tax free so more like £600ish.

Exactly this, I think you’re right here that’s definitely the closer comparison. It’s useful to understand typical nursery costs but I wouldn’t underestimate the extras we get.

That's a lot, you'd be about £60-£70 a day here, so £700-£800 per month.

The op's mum collects her dd and drops her home again. If the nursery were doing that it would add a fair whack to that rate.

It’s somewhere around £13/hour, so no I don’t think it’s that expensive for a 1:1 nanny. Nursery is cheaper. Would some DGPs be able to do it for less or free? Yes. But yours isn’t. I think if your mum was wealthy and asking for this I would respond differently but your child getting 1:1 care from someone who loves them for the amount both that person needs and you can pay is fine.

£60 or £70 a day is more like £800-£900 a month.
A month isn’t 4 weeks.

We're in the midlands and for my son to do 3 days at nursery the full cost is £900 - however we get Tax free childcare and 15 funded hours so the amount we actually pay is lower.

This is for 8am-6pm (I don't use all this time), includes all consumables (nappies/wipes etc) and food - breakfast, cooked lunch, light tea and snacks

I'm in outer London a 50 hour week would cost about £1000 less the 15 hours and then you would claim the 20% tax free

£1400 per month is a lot although appreciate she gave up her job to care for your child. If you do put your child in nursery when they are older, will your mum still be reliant on £1400 per month? If she's not at retirement age will she struggle to get another job at her age? All this should have been considered when she first agreed to give up her job. I know you are saying that you'd never let your mum go short but that could mean financially supporting her AND paying nursery fees.

A very good nursery near to me charges £300 for 2 days (includes the 15 hours funding).