Can't afford to work and pay childcare and rent - what do you do?

[summerinthesun]

Hi there,

I'm having some money and life worries at the moment and I wonder if anyone can share their experience and help with at least one of my problems!

I'm wondering how other single mums can afford to pay rent or mortgage and work.
I work full time in zone 1 in London and I'm paying £1300 a month for DD who's 16 months old to go to nursery 8am-6pm. I'm pregnant with a baby due in December, and I won't get any maternity pay from my company because I've not been there long enough. I'll get statutory maternity pay, but that's only £400 a month (I think - it might even be less).

I'm living with my sister and her family of 4 in a cramped top floor flat, because I can't afford to pay rent and nursery fees on my salary. I'll need to move out in time for my new baby to be born, as there is absolutely no room in her flat, plus with so many children living there it is really unhygenic as they all chew the same toys and germs spread like wildfire between us all.

I don't know where to start with looking for a house to move into. I want to stay near my sister to get support with my new baby, and to keep my DD at her nursery. But I viewed some horrific one bed flats today one was over £1200 a month, and one was over £1400 a month. Both had a tiny bedroom that only fitted in a double bed, with no way two additional cots would also fit in the room too. There was only one other room that was a kitchen/living room.

I'm currently not getting any benefits at all. I was living abroad and moved back in June, and I've spent hours on the phone and going in in person to hmrc, but they still haven't processed my claim for anything, so I'm not even getting child benefit at the moment.

I phoned the Citizens advice bureau the other day, it took 3 days of trying to get through, then on the 3rd day I phoned over 60 times in a row til they finally got to my call. They said I shouldn't move out from my sister's house, as it will look like I'm deliberately making myself homeless.

I phoned the council to ask about housing, and they said I should apply for income support. But my salary is £40,000 a year - so there is no way I'll get income support.

My salary sounds a lot but it is £2000 a month. So I don't know what I'll do about housing when I'm not earning for 6 months. But when I go back to work there is no way I can pay £1300 per child per month to go to nursery, plus £1300 for us all to live in the kitchen/living room of a grotty flat. That would be £3900 outgoings per month, not counting food or bills. Double my take home pay.
I can't see benefits giving me that much money either.

Is anyone here in a similar situation? And what do you do?

Oh gosh, you sound rather stuck!

Not sure what to say.

summer, have a look at this website. I put some details into the benefit's checker and it looks like you do qualify for some help in tax credits when you are working and paying childcare. Obviously I don't know your exact circumstances, but with 2 children in childcare while you work full time on £40K per year, you would appear to qualify for about £730ish every 4 weeks/£790 every month. I don't have any answers about the period you won't be working, sorry. It might be worth speaking to someone like Shelter to see if they can give you advice on how to deal with your impending homelessness. I don't really see how you can be deemed to be making yourself intentionally homeless when it's the addition of another, small, person that is actually making your stay no longer workable. I think you need some good advice, and hopefully Shelter might have some better knowledge on how to deal with that part of your worries.

Cool thanks for your help. That website looks good, and easier than the direct gov one to work out. Citizens advice suggested phoning shelter too. I think I will do it, just to have someone listen to my problems if nothing else, as Citizens advice couldn't get me off the phone fast enough.

I've actually just been googling Shared ownership housing, as it looks like it would be cheaper than renting, plus the benefit of not throwing your money away. The only thing is how long it took to set up.

Thanks for your help though, I'll phone Shelter and take it from there.

Well the rent in your area seems very high. Where I live in the South is nice and what is considered and affluent area and a 2 bed flat is abou 800 a month. Sounds like you need to move out a little bit. You can't afford to live in the expensive area you live in!

1300 a month for full time nursery is also very high! Can you find a cheaper one? Or how about a Childminder? They would often offer sibling discounts too.

Can't you an your sister help each other with childcare to both cut costs?

Or why don't you both find a nice house in a slighly cheaper area big enough for you all, rent it together, help each other with childcare, ask for flexible hours at work, try and work from home perhaps?

£790 sounds very high so I'm not sure that's right as even if you were on a lower wage then you only get 70% of childcare paid for. Do you get any maintenance off your childrens' father? If not, can you pursue that?

You are entitled to go on a council waiting list for housing. That would make things cheaper but obviously you might not be high priority. What job do you do? It may be worth dropping some hours so you do get tax credit help for childcare costs. I second trying to find a cheaper setting though. Maybe look into a nannyshare or a childminder?

hi there - in some ways I am in a pretty similar situation to you right down to salary and as banana says above you I'm sure you'd qualify for tax credits. I spent a morning trying to talk to them the other day and while it's not a huge amount for the first child (I think at £40k and one child you may not get much) it goes up a lot when you are alone with two children. If I've worked it out correctly it makes a huge difference to my enormous childcare bills. Am waiting for the claim forms to come through.
you could switch from nursery to childminder which is a lot cheaper isn't it - my friend who is freelance like me has a childminder and always scoffs at my nursery bills.
if you don't get maternity leave can you claim maternity allowance which is actually £540 a month not £400 (not a dramatic difference I know!)
and re rents I have no idea as what you have looked at sounds pretty standard for London even if you are way out.....
is it possible to do your job on a self-employed basis? makes childcare etc an awful lot easier in my experience and then you're also not tied into travelling in Zone 1 etc.
can you do a single parent house share with someone to halve your bills? there are some good threads on here for that?
good luck and sorry not to have more useful advice.

thanks for your advice everyone. I think something will have to give. But I've just started my job a few weeks ago, so not in a position to make changes there at the moment. I asked for flexible working when they offered me the job but they said no. I'll ask again when I come back from maternity leave.

DD's nursery is the only thing that's going well at the moment, it is the cheapest in the area, it's really good and she settled really quickly. Before she started she was an anxious wreck because of all the moving around we were doing and people coming in and out of her life. I had a bad experience with a horrible childminder, and I've seen some horrible ones when out at the park, so it has prejudiced me a bit. I've not totally ruled it out, but my main aim at the moment is to keep DD in her current nursery.

I'm going to do battle with the council and benefits as hard as I can then see where that leaves me.

hello everyone, I will be in the same position as summerinthesun when my first baby comes along in Feb. What website/phone can I go to to work out what I will be entitled too. I have no idea how I will afford my mortgage and childcare costs. I do get maternity pay but it goes down very quickly to 50% in 6 weeks. It's really stressful and I won't be getting anything from the manchild as he said he is leaving the country. :(

Please advise x

www.entitledto.co.uk

Greenwich & Lewisham have LOTS of shared ownership/newbuy 2 bed flats at present due to all the building around the Olympics. (Stratford prices just got crazy so I wouldn't rec for a lone parent, south of the river is cheaper). Parts of both boroughs are zone 2, so not horrific for transport costs, and good council run (affordable!) children's centres for child care. Worth doing a bit of research - London & Quadrant, Hyde & Tower Homes are the key housing associations administering the schemes in the area. You'd have to get in fairly quick though.

Thanks bochead - I'll try those shared ownership homes and see how I get on.