Childcare costs - how do people afford it?

[Nadene]

I am looking into childcare for when I go back to work. I only earn £21500/year and it looks like it costs almost the same for childcare, so I am just wondering how people manage to do this???

I'm a nursery owner in Outer London. Our age range starts at one year old.

We charge £200 per week for full daycare (50 hours per week) for all ages (we don't charge more for one year olds, even though the staff:child ratio is higher). This works out at £4 per hour and includes nappies and fantastic meals and snacks.

I don't think that £4 per hour is excessive for the care that we are providing. In addition, many of our parents' employers are signed-up to nursery voucher schemes which means that some of the care can be paid for tax-free.

I suppose it comes down to how much you are earning per hour?

i charge £28.50 per day and that is quite high for this area
average salaries are around £12000
high earners getting around £24000

parents think that all the fees they pay go to the nursery owners and the fees are high to make more profits

they arent we need to pay our staff above the minimum wage holidays etc rent etc as well with complying with ratios etc

i think the government should pay more money in the free funding for 3 and 4 year olds to the nurseries so that wages could be paid at a satisfactory level without hiking the fees up to parents who are unable to afford it.

why do i always get drawn in to resurrected threads..and why do they get randomly resurected?

Got as far as Toothcahes contribution before I thought something not quite right here!

Where we are nurseries cost from upwards of £50 a day and that is not being flashy, just the norm. It is very usual for childminders to charge £5 an hour - this is seen as the going rate.

I work part-time 2 days a week earning around £600 a month which if ds was in childcare would leave me with around £200 for my efforts. I am VERY lucky that my mother in law is able to look after ds on the days I work. If she couldn't I would stay at home, as I'm fortunate that £200 extra a month is not essential to our household budget and hardly seems worth the effort as my job is not really a 'career' as such.

I have no idea how people can work in part-time jobs earning £6-£8 an hour, which are available where I live and actually make it worth while.

In our area it's £33 per HALF day for a baby. We've worked out that for two full days per week of childcare we will be paying £550 per month. It's a lot of money but still worth my while working part-time. We're hoping that DH will be able to work from home one day a week while I'm at work so that we reduce our costs slightly.

All the nurseries round our way also insist on a minimum of 4 sessions per week - which is two full days. Yes, I could look into a childminder or other alternatives but the nursery is right by the train station so would be easy to drop off/pick up as you are charged more if you exceed 'core' hours.

Must be being thick. If went back to work p/t our income would be around £55k and I've looked at that on the link and it says we are not eligible for working tax credit - only child care credit (which we get now eventhough I am not working). Thought the cut off was around £60k before you didn't get any help with childcare costs?

For me, it's just not worth going back whilst DD is little. The costs of travelling, running two cars (we only have to run one presently) and childcare (no family nearby) make it unviable which is a shame as I'd like to work a few days a week to have some 'me' time.

Thanks for the link to the calculator...now I know for sure we get diddly-squat! Thanks Gordon, I'll be sure to vote for you...not.