All year round nursery & working TT only- Universal credit help

[Concreterosee]

Im so very confused about this and I would be so grateful for help & advice. i have spent all summer trying to arrange pickup/after nursery childminding with it all going tits up. (First childminder was asking me to do fraud and claim 2weeks settling in with UC, second childminder’s home stunk of cigarettes and generally had an unpleasant feeling about her) these were the only two available to do pick ups from his nursery where he does 30hrs 8.45-3.25.

A friend has agreed to do paid pick ups for now until she finds work. Long term I need to have a more stable plan in place.

Single parent. I work 16 hours a week TT only. The nurseries near me offering 8am-6.30pm childcare (Central London) only offer all year round places with stretched 30hrs.

now my question is would UC help me with 85% childcare costs for an all year round nursery place if I was only working TT?
I was thinking of only claiming for childcare used ‘term time’ and taking the hit of paying Christmas Easter Summer holidays + half term holidays out of my own pocket.

hope this makes sense 🫩😫

Have you used the eligibility checker on here? https://www.beststartinlife.gov.uk/eligibility-checker

Your earningsOver the next 3 months you and your partner (if you have one) must each expect to earn at least:

• £2,539 before tax if you’re aged 21 or over (equivalent to £195 per week)
• £2,080 before tax if you’re aged 18 to 20 (equivalent to £160 per week)
• £1,570 before tax if you’re under 18 or an apprentice (equivalent to £120 per week)

This is equivalent to the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage for 16 hours a week, on average.

How old it your child?

I found from 2 there were lots of term-time only nurseries.

Your friend can’t do more than two hours paid childcare a day.

I could be wrong but if you are only earning 16w tt you won’t earn enough as will be not earning the holidays of 12/13w or so

so your tt hours would need to equal 22 to work out over the year

plus

how are you going to afford to pay 30hrs childcare if you earn /work 16 hours and won’t be earning anything for those holiday weeks so 12/13 depending of no income

unless I’m reading it wrong

Not sure what you mean by committing fraud? Settling in sessions are counted as childcare for the purposes of claiming UC.

As pp have said, do you earn enough to claim the childcare element by only working 16 hours a week?

I would not be happy to take the financial hit of upto 13 weeks of unnecessary childcare costs.

If you can afford to take the hit of paying for the school holidays, maybe you can afford a nanny?