Childcare costs and survival

[Pollyx1]

Can someone please explain how you survive in London and pay for nursery if you have a mortgage to pay and is a single parent?
I have a full time job and about half of the pay is going towards a mortgage and bills.
Nursery costs about £1000 a month. My salary is not considered low to receive any kind of benefit but I can’t afford a nursery. I live alone with my child and am a single parent.
I moved to the UK few years ago and have no relatives here who can help sit with the baby.

it’s also slightly annoying that I can’t meet someone who can help with advice face to face, and all information is only online to search gov.uk and maternity action and such websites.

Are you sure that you income is considered too high for universal credit if you include allowable childcare costs.

It's just really, really hard. I did it by using savings, compressing my hours to reduce to four days (involved working to midnight some nights to squeeze my hours in, and absolute killer), picking up shifts in another job when I was on annual leave (nursery was open 51 weeks of the year), and going into some debt in the final year. Are you using tax free childcare? That helped a lot although I was still paying the best part of £1000 a month after that.

I was earning around £55k so a good enough salary to be ineligible for any other help (I even lost half the CB, which I hugely resent) but not enough to make ends meet.

It's a relatively short term cost so I could pay the debt once school started, but it was the most exhausting 3 years of my life.

It's really, really hard. You have my sympathies OP.

I think when DS started nursery I got something like £3.5k per month post tax, £1,100 for rent, £1,900 for nursery, £300 on the commute, £600 for bills... the maths just doesn't add up 😬 But of course, I wasn't entitled to anything because that's a HUGE salary obviously 😅

I dipped into wiped out savings and changed jobs to one which covered the basics. Then a promotion and a good bonus made me comfortable again but it was TIGHT for a few years.

The plus side is when you eventually get to school age, the wraparound costs seem like chump change and you feel rich 😂

sounds exhausting. Then having a second child would be pretty much impossible if having them few years apart and being a single parent…
as per the comment earlier, would I be able to include allowable childcare to claim UC? I haven’t tried that

It’s incredible that even with a decent salary you struggle financially and not always afford a nursery.

Go to the entitled to website and do a benefit calculator as you can add childcare costs in there to give you an idea.

shall do so, thanks so much

Do you have to live in London? Obviously if child's father is there or if your work is specific to London you do but money goes much, much further in other areas of the country.

Otherwise it's scrimping and saving and knowing it's not forever. Looking at other childcare options like Nanny shares or child minders.

Can't the father help? Yes kids are expensive, always have been

Yes he will otherwise, I want to understand how the system works though as it’s very confusing

Yes, I work in London so London it is