Child care schemes for higher earners?

[FTMaz]

Hi everyone,

Ive seen a similar thread to this which received a lot of hate so before I start please do not think I am looking for loop holes or to be dishonest I am looking for genuine schemes/ incentives.

my son is 1 year old and due to start nursery the end of April. I am returning to work part time earning 34k (total wage this has already been worked out pro rata). This is on an employed basis. My partner and I are not married but we live together. He is self employed and earns upwards of 200k per year including dividends. I have looked at the free nursery hours for working parents and based on my partners wage we are not eligible - fair enough. However does anyone know of any other schemes or incentives for child care that apply to those earning over £60k. I realise that we are in a privileged position, however my understanding is that these schemes are to allow people to work and it seems that for me, given the wage I will be earning it may not be financially sound for me to do so albeit I am returning to work for non financial reasons (I work with serious child protection cases and feel that currently I am not using my skills which are valuable).

thank you for replies in advance!

Have you checked if you're eligible for tax free childcare?
https://www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare?step-by-step-nav=d78aeaf6-1747-4d72-9619-f16efb4dd89d

There has to be a cut off somewhere. Can you not reduce costs elsewhere like mortgage/rent/cars etc?

Or maybe your partner could reduce his hours and get under the cut off?

@SH23B why does there have to be a cut off?

We don’t have a cut off for schools, or the NHS.

Although - it wouldn’t entirely surprise me if these suddenly started requiring additional contributions from higher earners too.

Hi - people that don’t own a company may not have understood what I meant if I went into dividends etc. regardless it makes no difference as dividends are included now whereas previously they were not.

I'm a little confused OP. If, as you admit, you can afford to pay for childcare, why are you asking how to exploit the system so that tax payers pay it for you?

You're very right, we should all be able to claim universal credit too.

For me I think the issue is how high the cut off is - 2 people both earning £99k get the hours. You can have unlimited income if your partner works away for more than 6 months of the year. It seems that we just miss out whilst others benefit.

if anything I would argue the cut off should be significant reduced then I’d feel much better about it!

@FTMaz
You need to stop falling down the trap of thinking the childcare comes out of your wage. I know you are saying it doesn’t so stop thinking like that. Maybe phrase it as the childcare comes out of your husband’s wage? Then it will definitely be worth his time going back to work after the child. You’ll get the free hours. You could look at your husband reducing his time to get his wage to around £120k and then putting £20k into his pension (play around with the figures to make it work)? That way you’ll get the tax break of 20%, your husband can drop a day and spend it with his child. Win win!!

As my original post said - I am not looking to ‘exploit’ anything. I am asking for advice.

I think if you want to expect higher earners to pay very high taxes… there’s some expectation of a comprehensive benefit system they have access to.

Thats how it works in most countries with high taxation - the high earners are still eligible for the benefits. You’re all part of it together, the benefits are universal.

Expecting people to pay vast amounts of tax and then excluding them from using those benefits… doesn’t really seem fair.

I’m broadly quite happy to pay high taxes, I’m not so happy to pay high taxes and then pay through the nose on top of that for services the very vast majority of parents are getting heavily subsidised.

I’m not disputing you getting free childcare. If anything I’m in support of the threshold being lowered. But as is I’m entitled to find advice about my situation.

Hi
it goes on last tax year so we didn’t think of this until it was too late.

Fair or not, your childcare bill won't be over 50% of your income... I can assure you that's painful.

Oh, I cried when they extended the "free" hours. It meant I could go back work part time.

if anything I would argue the cut off should be significant reduced then I’d feel much better about it!

What an odd sort of "if I can't have it, I want to take it from others" sort of attitude.

I'd agree that doing it by household income might be fairer. But I don't think that just so I feel better about not getting it!

No im not embarrassed at all. We’re not considered super wealthy, we pay high tax. I do a public sector job. I have nothing to be embarrassed about.

That’s just one year though! You’ve got plenty more to go! So do it now! You can use the tax free credits for after school clubs etc. So it will be beneficial when your child gets older. One year won’t make a lot of difference.

I don’t agree. I think if a benefit is there to support those who truly need it then let it do that. As a previous poster said - i don’t think it’s unreasonable to feel it’s unfair that some people on such a high income get it whereas others don’t.

I don’t think childcare should be taxable for anyone, personally. Your income is already being taxed, then you’re paying to work in the sense that you’re paying for childcare so why on earth should that be taxed as well? You’re paying twice.

It seems people are not at all embarrassed to kick off about free childcare hours when they earn over the threshold

Editing to add I know the op is not kicking off just asking a question but these topics come up so often and they always go the same way with high earners being upset they aren't entitled.

I also think @FTMaz some people assume access to state services is because you’re needy, rather than the idea we are all contributing to a central set of services because these are valuable to society.

For some reason the NHS and schooling are ‘equality for all, let’s contribute to enable everyone to have access’.

Bit for some reason childcare is perceived as ‘a welfare benefit because you otherwise can’t afford it’… despite it potentially being paid to household with incomes of up to £198k, while not being paid to households earning £100k.

If you think this is kicking off you’ve really lived a sheltered life 😂👍🏼