Single mums where and when do you work?

[Shitonthebloodything]

Husband has decided he’s out. We have a 3 yr old plus my 10 & 16 yr olds. I’ve been self employed for 10 years working part time but that’s not going to cut it. I own a property that has tenants in contracted until next year so can’t move there and won’t qualify for help. I need to completely start from scratch.

What do you do? What hours do you work? What is your childcare setup? How fo you make it work with school runs/holidays etc?

I’m a teacher. Just an FYI if you go to university to re-train you can claim most of the childcare costs for your 3 year old. My partner did this (not for the childcare costs but it transpired that most of the nursery fees were covered) and you get a lot of grants etc. as a parent.

P.s. sorry I forgot about childcare setup. I pay a childminder as it’s cheaper, more flexible and in my opinion much better for my son than a nursery.

Can you up your income from your business? Working for yourself is the better option if you can do it around the children are you moving out or him?

I also teach. I rely heavily on before and after school club and am counting down the years until the dc start secondary school.

I've worked since the dc were babies although not a single parent then (but my DH worked a long commute away so I did all the childcare arrangements). I worked PT (employed with a 1hr commute) then with a childminder which had them 7-6 two days a week.

When they went to primary I was self employed so could juggle hours around school runs. Holidays were covered by holiday club and us taking holiday, albeit mainly together so no 'extra' weeks gained between us.

I now, as a single parent, work FT and the DC mainly get the bus to school (secondary) but I do give lifts sometimes if wfh. Luckily as many children travel by bus all clubs are lunchtime ones so that helps with no late pickups. ExH is still quite involved though and will do school runs if necessary and has them some of the holidays. Also now have friends dc some holiday days so they can work and vice versa.

All the best with your split and I hope it can be amicable as it does make things so much easier 💐

I'm not a single parent but my job would work well. I work for the centre for early child development. I work in the local community, signposting and educating where needed on things like speech and language, emotion development etc. It's flexi hours, work from home but can use the main office. I am in control of nearly all of my diary.
I am studying for a degree in family support so can move up in the company too

I work in housekeeping at a local hotel, pay is rubbish, however the hours are 9-3 which works well with school times. I can claim back up to 85% of the childcare costs out of term time.

I work in a pub 9-3 Monday to Friday. I live 10 minutes walk away so the kids start at 8.50am and I run to get to work for 9am then finish at 3pm and school finishes at 3.20pm.

Childcare in the holidays is a nightmare. I've paid teenagers, sent them off to sleep at my parents 40 miles away and if desperate sent them in a taxi to their dad's.

I struggle because even though I could claim a lot of childcare back through UC I can't afford to pay the hundreds it would cost up front as UC pays it in arrears.

The pub is also a hotel and the housekeepers work 10-2 everyday which would be good for school.

You pay for childcare. My childminder was amazing. Flexible and never once let us down over the years. I claim
Back 85% of
My child care costs through universal credit and had no problem with this.

Another one who works in a hotel, hours fit around the school run.
Holidays are difficult, I book some annual leave and they go to my mums or sisters and then I use a holiday club.

Not a single parent but I’ve heard that some civil service jobs eg being a JobCentre Plus adviser, you can do term time only and get pay pro rated

For those that claim 85% childcare back...do you need to earn a minimum or work a certain number of hours? Thank you!

@littleproblems

For those that claim 85% childcare back...do you need to earn a minimum or work a certain number of hours? Thank you!

I'm not sure if you could get away with booking a weeks worth of holiday club if you work 2 days a week but there doesn't seem to be a minimum number of hours. It's a maximum of £646 a month for one or £1108 for two. It's 85% or less depending on how much you get paid (I earn roughly 1350 and get 85% but I only use childcare in school holidays).

Randomly if you getpaid extra for childcare you have to pay more council tax as it counts as income

@littleproblems

For those that claim 85% childcare back...do you need to earn a minimum or work a certain number of hours? Thank you!

It's upto 85% so the more you earn the less childcarecosts UC would pay.

Single parent. No family support.

I work 08.30 -1.30 NHS. I use breakfast club and playschemes for all the school holidays.

I get most of the bank holidays off work.

@womaninatightspot yep my council tax and housing benefit went down when I got childcare help in the summer.

They just give it with one hand and take it with another. How the hell can a contribution to childcare be counted as income when it goes to the provider and we've already paid a percentage of it out of our income.

@womaninatightspot you don't have to pay extra Council tax if you claim childcare costs.

You can also send your child to playschemes as many days as you like even if you only worked one or no days that particular week.

I should think so after you have to pay all your childcare costs up front before you get the money back This is my biggest gripe with UC.

[quote BunNcheese]@womaninatightspot you don't have to pay extra Council tax if you claim childcare costs.

You can also send your child to playschemes as many days as you like even if you only worked one or no days that particular week.

I should think so after you have to pay all your childcare costs up front before you get the money back This is my biggest gripe with UC.[/quote]
They count any money received from UC as income, regardless of whether it's the childcare element, where I live ( I've heard not all councils do) so my council tax bill increases when I have to pay for childcare.

I suppose technically I'm not paying extra council tax but my council tax reduction decreases so I'm certainly paying more those months I use childcare. It must be a complete PITA for the council I get a letter every month with my new paymentas my income varies.

[quote StillSadAboutTiffanyMitchell]@womaninatightspot yep my council tax and housing benefit went down when I got childcare help in the summer.

They just give it with one hand and take it with another. How the hell can a contribution to childcare be counted as income when it goes to the provider and we've already paid a percentage of it out of our income.[/quote]
It was a surprise for me. I don't get housing benefit but my council tax bill was nearly a hundred quid more for two months on the basis of £350 quid extra income a month when I'd already paid £415. I worked out that I'd be much better off reducing my hours and earning less than using paid childcare.

I'm not a single parent.

I have with people previously who do the below:

9am - 5pm term time, 6 weeks of school holidays off and 10am-2pm the rest of the holidays (annualised hours). Clubs were used in term time and family care for the others.

9am - 5pm Monday-Wednesday with Grandparents doing drop off/pick up and holiday care

37.5 hours a week, core hours of 10am-2pm and the rest of the hours made up whenever.

These were all in a third sector employer.

Its certainly swings and roundabouts. Always trying to work out whether I'd be better off working more, paying for childcare than working less hours or even not working at all. They definitely give with one hand and take with the other...
Sending love to all other single mums doing their best xxx

I work 3 10.5hr night shifts a week for the NHS, my usual hours are 9pm-7:30am. Ex has ds 50% of the time so I work the evenings he has them. This means I have no free time but it works for now.
I haven't got any family here as they live a 2hr car journey away. After my last night shift I sleep when ds is at school and then I pick him up from school so no need for child care for me. Holidays I only normally need to book one day a week childcare. I'm counting down the years until ds is in secondary school so I can extend my hours but work in the day.

Was self employed when I split up from
Dp.
Worked full time since we split.
8.30-5, M-F
Used a childminder when kids were young, out of school
Club then they were latch key kids.
It gets easier the older they get.