What % of your take home pay goes on childcare ?

[Lasvegas]

Having one of those why does childcare have to come out of net pay, in my view it should be treated the same as pension contributions.

My childcare and cleaning costs are 50% of my take home /net pay. What about you?

Should say that mine (below) is for two days' childcare a week and dh and I both work four days a week ? my parents provide free childcare one day a week, god bless them and all who sail in them.

If we worked full time and ds was in nursery full time, this would be 55% of our income, so if we have a second child we would be better off (or at least the same financially) if one of us gave up work and the other went full time.

GhostofNatt - I used to think I was quite well paid too until a few MNer's posted things like "TBH I earn signicantly more than any of the posts here"!!!!

at least 50% or actually more like 70%

(I pay childcare, am paid crappy money plus dd2 is at expensive pre prep)

before we got the gvt vouchers for dd, it was 1/3 of my salary on nursery fee's (wasn't on a huge salary)

popsy c and orangina - thanks you have made me feel better about 'only' paying 50% of my take home.

This may help U feel better when DD was younger I had full time nanny and each month my expenses were more than my income. I used my savings to live off for about a year then when DD was 16 months she went to child minder & I halved my childcare costs. I was a single parent so it was either work and use savings or have house repossesed and live on benefits. Not that I am saying there is anything wrong with benefits it just wasn't for me at that point in time.

Forgot to say that in addition to take home pay I get a v good pension, BUPA for the whole family, Life insurance cover and critical health cover. These things are v important to me so make it worthwhile working IYSWIM.

After tax and pension etc roughly 25%/30%...Still too much!

You can get tax free and NI contribution free vouchers to pay for childcare (up to £217 per month per parent)if your carer accepts them and your employer is in a voucher scheme.

eg busybees

My costs are 23% of my income, 7% of joint income. As DD is 3, her nursery place is subsidised as govt offer free nursery places for children of that age for 5 x 2.5 hr sessions per week.

I'm a childminder and I earn £2.75 an hour. Really hard to make any way decent wage on this rate.........

Agree the gov. should be doing more to help, parents are paying way too much tax and childminders are having to cram too many kids in to make a decent salary.

I only mind one child at a time, my choice. But it's not worth it money-wise.

Boyfriend looks after 1yr old while i am at work,saves a fortune

20% of our joint income - but it's 50% of my income alone - for full-time nursery for a 2 year old, and for pre-school care for ds.
Much better than pre-september when it was almost 40% of our combined income and was actually more than I earnt - would have been better off financially if I hadn't of worked for a year or so - but then I've been promoted which I probably wouldn't have got if I took a career break so I'm earning it back now I guess.
Both dh and I get the salary sacrifice vouchers, which are great but I agree with everyone else in thinking it should be a 'necessary expense' and tax-deductable.

When they were both at nursery full time it was about 2/3rds of my salary - and I never thought I had a badly paid job, just a very expensive (but crap) nursery which had cornered the market in this area!

Now I pay for a couple of days of after school care, which works out at about 10%, or just under. Childcare in this country needs a good shake up IMO. Too expensive and not always of a consistent quality, sadly.

Lasvegas I'm glad it's not just me too! I just can't bear the thought of her having 3 meals a day at nursery (even if it is only 4 days a week) Our nanny picks her up at 3.30/4 and I get home around 6.30 usually.

57% of my take home pay. Back in March (before my old new job) that would have been 75%. In my new new job (which I haven't been paid for yet) it will be about 49%.

Taking DH's pay (including overtime) into account the percentages are;

28%, 32% and 26%

between 5 and 10 % for our 3 year old.

I employed our Nanny as a childrens entertainer thus effectivly ofsetting the costs of childcare against profits Now we no longer need her as a nanny she still comes to works 2 days a week doing allsorts!

At the moment my childcare is 38% of our household income because I am on maternity leave and my DH recently got made redundant. Mum at ds' nursery has put 2 children in nursery full time from aged 6 months to school, and calculated she had spent over £60,000!!!

Need to go and have a lie down and try not to panic....

Anteater, you employed your nanny as a childrens entertainer? How'd you manage that?

hard to be exact as i don't pay tax on childcare (workplace nursery scheme).

but it used to be about 40-50% of my salary for two pre-schoolers in nursery, now (after payrise) it's about 15% for one pre-schooler in nursery + maybe 5% for after school care.

Uwila, well obviously our business needed one!!