Financial help for working parents

[RookieParent]

Hello all,

We're new parents first time posting on mumsnet and looking for advice on financial support.

We are currently looking around at nurseries for our 10 month old and shocked at the fees (~£1000 a month!). Both of us are working parents which seems to rule us out of nearly every type of government support apart from tax-free childcare.

Questions we would like help with are:

• is there any other funding support available?
• are there any alternative types of childcare that we can look into?

Regards,
RP

@Ozanj @Thegirlhasnoname

No it’s not possible to do this as you can’t open an account until a month before the end of maternity leave.

Trying doing a benefit calculator to see if you are eligible for help with registered childcare costs through universal credit. They will pay up to £646 a month.
Childminders are cheaper than nurseries. Maybe do a nanny share with other families?

@Ozanj you can’t do that, when I applied last year it had to be within a month of my maternity leave ending

Also, bear in mind the tax free childcare is only up to £2,000 (so govt gives you £500 every 3 months). My nursery fees are similar to yours (£1200+/month) and so tax free childcare doesn't touch the sides really. Better than nothing though. Bizarrely, even though I earn about £40k, I'm still eligible for Universal Credit help with childcare fees (as long as I don't have savings over £16k).
I opted for nursery as the childminders round here do odd things like don't start till 9am, or don't do Fridays!