How can single mums work with these available hours?

[Alisa2]

Hi everyone,

I'm a single mum with two children: DD1 (who is in school from 8am to 4pm including travel time to and from which is done by her father) and DD2 (who goes to nursery on Wednesday and Friday from 1pm to 6pm). I have a commitment with the Job Centre to work 30 hours per week, but after factoring in travel time to drop off DD2 at nursery, I only have about 10 hours of kid-free time available each week to work.

I have no other childcare options with family or friends or their father.

Currently, my availability to is work Wednesday and Friday from 1:30pm to 4pm. Nursery can only offer to add Monday and Friday afternoons if I’m able to secure 30-hour funding for DD2, but this would require me to find a job to meet the Job Centre's requirements.

Unfortunately, the nursery doesn’t have availability for full days or mornings, and even if I did manage to get 4 x morning slots or 2 full days I’d still be limited to 14 hours a week at best. DD2 has been at this nursery for over a year, and it took her a long time to settle in. She’s very happy there with her friends and the staff, and I do not want to change her nursery at all.

I really want to work and be in a better financial situation, but I don’t know where to start finding a job that fits within these hours. Even if I do find a job for 10-14 hours a week, it won’t be enough to meet the Job Centre's requirement of earning around £900 a month to stop going in every week. They’ve said I need to earn that amount to be exempt from weekly appointments.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? How have you managed to work with limited childcare hours? How can I find a job that fits these constraints and earns enough to meet the Job Centre's expectations without having to go in each week? Any advice on jobs or strategies would be really helpful!

You need a different nursery or childminder who can do full time hours for your youngest, meaning that you can essentially at that point work most jobs that are 9-5.

Unfortunately you need to find another daycare or childminder who can facilitate full time hours.

You will be eligible for some financial help towards childcare costs.

That opens your availability up to 9-5 hours.

You find a nursery or child minder who can take you DC full time. Same as the rest of us, I have DH but still need nursery to be able to work so my DC is in 8-6pm 4 days a week.

Weirdly just spoken to a recruitment agency who said that they have no part time work at all after it being very popular several years ago. I was hoping to work around or do a job share but apparently companies only want full time these days. I had assumed things had moved on from the early 2000s to get women back in to work...apparently not!

You have to get a job like everyone else, and use a different childcare provider. Universal Credit helps with childcare costs.

When are the children with their dad(s)? Can’t you work then too?

I think the answer is that working parents just don't choose childcare that doesn't work for working?

Like every other working parent, you select child care that allows you to actually work.

I'd see if there are any childminders available locally.

Does their father have them at weekends at all?

Dad needs to step up big time.

I like how everyone assumes that there is more childcare to be have in a location that doesn't mean more travelling time and therefore less work availability...

Hopefully there are other options around - splitting funding across settings is possible.

If you want to keep the nursery space look for a childminder who could have her for the morning and then drop her to nursery at 1pm and also have her on the other days.

I understand the difficulty though because you can't work without the childcare, but you can't afford to put the childcare in place without a job.

Could her Dad/another family member help out short term?

It would be nice to keep her in the current nursery but that isn’t an option unfortunately. It’s a luxury that you’re not in a position to choose. You need to arrange childcare that will allow you to work properly, and forget the idea of finding a unicorn job for about four very specific hours per week that fits around the childcare you would like to keep. Sorry to be harsh but you’re being totally unrealistic. As you’ve said, even working those particular hours isn’t enough to satisfy the job centre because it’s not working enough to even try and support yourself and your child.

Work isn’t a choice you get to make within your own ridiculously specific parameters, it’s something you need to do and so you make arrangements to make that possible. Sorry to be blunt but that’s the crux of it.

I work 30 hours a week, 9-3 Monday to Friday. the boss is fine with me getting in the office asap after the school drop off which usually means about 9:10am depending on traffic.

You might find, in a lot of jobs, as long as you're reliable where you can be, that employers do accept a bit of flexibility.

I get that the expectation is that work fits around your needs and I wish it did but employers expect you to fulfil their needs first. They pay you money to have first dibs on your time. Something that children can't.

Can you get a childminder locally? If so I would look for one that can have youngest 7.30am-1pm and drop at nursery on the wed and Friday. And a full day another. So you have 8-4pm free, 3 days a week.

I hire someone who works 9:45am to 2:30pm for childcare reasons, but it sounds like your kids are at opposite times to each other so not sure how it can work for you.

I don't think it would work with new workplace and new boss.
In my previous job I had loooots of flexibility because my boss knew that I'll work at home and job will be done, even at 4am.
I used to leave earlier for sickness, parents evening, etc.
It also depends on your role...

How long til dc2 does the same school hours as her sister?

I really feel for you OP. In some areas it's incredibly hard to find childcare and/or jobs that don't require evening/weekend working, which is generally not possible as a single parent.

Have you considered working as a child minder yourself?

As others have said if you don't have family help (I didn't) then you have to change your childcare, my DC had to go to nursery 8am-6pm to enable me to work and then when they went to school, did before school/after school clubs which they enjoyed.

While it may seem hard for your DD2 to change nurseries or to a childminder she's likely to settle quicker in a different place now she's a bit older than going to nursery to start with.

It does highlight why so many single parent's can't work - when they are a little older and at school it becomes easier with clubs that can keep them for a bit after school and (if the gov is actually doing what it says it is) breakfast clubs should be a more usual thing in a year or so.

How did you pay for the extra hours and get the place without knowing you had the job? I was in a similar situ to OP years ago and had to admit defeat for 2 years until youngest was at school (no breakfast or after school club). I couldn't apply for work without childcare and places doing longer hours are few and far between as well as super expensive - it was a catch 22.

I was a single mum, in those days when the kids were pre-school I used a childminder as then I could drop for 7 and pick up at 5. When they started school, they went to breakfast and after school clubs instead. Its doable, you will just need to pay for decent childcare.

It's a classic chicken and egg - childcare needs to be booked and paid in advance but payment from UC is in arrears, plus there's no guarantee of walking into a job with the hours you can line up with what childcare is available in your location - not all towns have loads of childcare and the most work convenient childcare tends to be booked up from the 20 week scan. Meaning people getting back into work are a bit more limited in their choices.

I'm in Scotland and the universal 30 hours provision (or 22 hours stretched) was pretty vital in getting me back to work beyond ad hoc stuff because I had certainty of core hours being covered, I had time to do job applications and short notice job interviews without having to scrabble around for last minute childcare.

If you live somewhere pretty central with lots of employment locally there is usually childcare to match. If you have been priced out of convenient areas (or pulled by family/partner's work) then there is much less childcare and it is not set up to permit commuting to places with lots of jobs.

Lots of jobs required flexibility from new applicants too - usually requiring evenings and weekends and longer hours than childcare will easily cover!

You don't have to work 30 hours when they are three. You just need to meet the AET for a single claim. They like to say you should work 30 hours but actually it is more like 18.