UC Childcare Element

[CoffeeIsAlwaysTheAnswer]

Morning Mumsnet,

Contemplating whether children would be financially feasible in the near future for us. DH will start to retrain next year and be a full-time student - second degree, so no SAAS for us (we're in Scotland). He can claim the loan element but with interest rates rising, we'd like to avoid it.

Mortgage should be paid off end of his first year at uni and is roughly the same as one child in nursery would be. The issue is, twins run in both of our families and I suspect money would be tight with two. Full-time childcare for 1-2 year olds seems to be around £1200-1300/month where we are, some places have a laughable 10% sibling discount.

So I tried to look at the UC childcare benefit calculator and I can't make sense of it. It keeps telling me we would be eligible for absolutely no UC but I thought the income threshold for the childcare element was quite high? I'm definitely not earning six figures! Or does it only kick in when children are older?

To pre-empt the question, DH would be studying a healthcare subject, between the workload and the shifts in hospital, there is no chance of him taking on childcare days. He could do a few hours of work here and there but it wouldn't bring in much.

Can anyone enlighten me how it all works, please? We might never need to know but I'd rather be prepared!

Childcare is set to change from September 24 I believe, I don't know if it's different rules for Scotland, I've not read too much into it as it won't affect me.
When you fill in the benefits calculator did you add childcare costs?

entitledto didn't give me the option to enter childcare cost when I entered what would be our hypothetical situation. The others shout "students are different, can't do that" at me but if I enter DH as "unemployed, not looking for work" (or say there is no partner) it still comes up as me not being entitled to anything.

I wouldn't want to count on the 2024 changes, pretty sure they will not become reality!

If you are entitled to a student loan they will include that amount in the benefit calculation, along with earnings, you have to claim the student loan first before claiming UC. Which is outrageous considering it's a loan and incurring interest, but is what is expected

Because Student Income/Loans are complicated and have several variants online checkers tend to exclude that group.

It might be worth a call to the Help to Claim Service on (in Scotland) on 0800 023 2581.

The fact one of your is not working and that you've, AIUI, elected not to apply for a loan might also add hurdles.

It's not outrageous because otherwise no-one eligible to claim UC would bother taking the loan and the taxpayer would essentially fund their degree through UC payments. If you don't claim the loan , UC will calculate your entitlement as if you have. OP, you are asking the impossible because childcare costs under UC are subject to massive fraud currently and the whole system for claiming will change. So it is impossible to guarantee any future benefits

Uc would expect your partner to take any maintenance loans available to him. You can't choose not to take them and then claim benefits.