Childminder fees

[alwaysthinkingofsleep]

I'm considering options after maternity & whether or not returning to work is "worth it". I understand that it clearly is in terms of remaining employable/pension etc however struggling to offset childcare fees with my salary.

What do people pay their childminder & where are you in the U.K.? TIA!

It will vary per area. My little one is in nursery, aged 3 and I pay £44 a day. Nursery fees vary for age.

You will need to think about the impact of tax free childcare and if your entitled to free 15 hours at 2 and therefore 30 hours at 3. These start the term after they turn the age and are only for 39 weeks a year. Everyone gets 15 hours free for 39 weeks the term after they turn 3

I'm in the south west and pay our childminder £5 per hour. I use tax free childcare too which saves us 20%, it's made a huge difference to what we can afford.

My partner and I both work a 4 day week, so childminder for 3 days and then we each take a day.

Unfortunately we're not eligible for the 20% top up & will only get 15 hrs when my PFB turns 3.

Nurseries near me are £60 per day & I need childcare for 2 for 2 days. Just wondering if there is a big difference with childminders & if that would be a realistic option for you.

@HoneyBee03 thanks for sharing x

15 years ago in London it was £65 to £85 a day. When I had my second I would be paying to work as I was on £120/day before taxes, so I stopped.
I’m amazed that HoneyBee you pay only £5/hour! My cleaner is £10. Is she/he registered? I think I used to pay the teen up the road £5/hour when I needed a babysitter at night. And this is not London.

Why are you paying 100%of the fees? Surely you are only responsible for 50%, and you partner the other 50%?

Also, be careful if you get more than SMP as you may have to pay it back if you don't go back to work

@Lazypuppy thank you for your concern. All monies in our house are shared. Still, I don't think it's unreasonable to consider whether or not it is worth returning to work if I will pay out the same in fees as I am earning per month.

I am also very aware of my obligations to my company in regards to maternity pay & they are very aware of my current position.

If you have any experience of childminding costs I'd love to hear them.

Round here it’s £4.50-£6 an hour.

If you aren’t eligible then your Dh (or you but it’s seems unlikely if this is your quandary) must be earning £100,000 +.

Even if you don’t make enough to cover the fees or your wage alone I would say your household and you personally will still benefit financially in the future to make up the short term loss.

@Twickerhun thanks, I was thinking around that 👍🏻

We are in SE. Pay £55 pd for 14 month old ms nursery. We are moving her to cm in July at £45 pd

South & £4.75/hour plus meal costs. Nappies included.

Manchester £40 a day

@alwaysthinkingofsleep

Still, I don't think it's unreasonable to consider whether or not it is worth returning to work if I will pay out the same in fees as I am earning per month.

But thats exactly what i mean, you won't be paying out what you earn in a month, cause you shouldn't be thinking of it only coming from your money.why do you need to jeopardise your career, pension etc so fully?

We've always used a nursery as we pay equivalent of £4 an hour which is cheaper than a childminder. Both me and my partner work ft 5 days a week

Everyone gets the 20% top up unless you earn more than £100k a year.

I pay cm £4.50 per hour in Somerset.

Obviously the more expensive childminders sometimes have mucus higher costs as they have more resources and do more visits out etc.

I live in west Yorkshire and our last Childminder charged £5.50 p/h. We only started using a Childminder since my children started school and tbh it's been a bit of a nightmare - the 1st cm suddenly decided she wanted to retire despite being nowhere near retirement age, the 2nd cm changed her mind just before we were due to start (another, younger child started with her instead so I heard) and the last cm had had to take time off for treatment for an illness.

We are now stuck because my eldest is 8 and is being investigated for potential adhd and as soon as a possible cm hears about that they don't want to know.

We never had any issues when they were going to nursery, I suppose because there were lots of staff and we weren't relying just on one person. We have also found that the cm isn't much, if at all, cheaper than nursery.

In your position though I wouldn't give up work because going back to it later on will be much harder than a few years of less money whilst paying childcare fees.

£3.50 per hour in Wales.

But thats exactly what i mean, you won't be paying out what you earn in a month, cause you shouldn't be thinking of it only coming from your money.

I seriously don’t understand this attitude on mn. It’s family money, why would you go back to work for your family to be worse off. She’s not saying it’s just her responsibility to pay for childcare, but if it’s going to cost you (plural you, as in couple) more that you’ll (singular, just you) earn, why would you bother?

And I know pension, career, yadada but lots of people value their child’s upbringing as well as their careers, as shocking as that may seem.

Also, on a pension point, my pension pot may be less because I only work 3 days, but because we’re not forking out £2000 a month in childcare my husband’s pot will be bigger. Surely I also benefit from this?

I charge £6 - £6.50 an hour Zone 6 London if that helps?

@Kungfupanda67

Will you benefit if you split up? It nearly always seems to be the woman who needs to weigh up the financial implications and often, they are short term not long term. It can be very detrimental to one's career and financial security to give up work permanently and to be the one making the sacrifices.
I don't think anyone who works full time is less concerned about their children's upbringing either. Silly thing to say.

£60 a day in Edinburgh, CM charge the same as nurseries so it's not a cheaper option here.

@Kungfupanda67 yes family money, so why should my career and pension suffer and not his?

I value my career as well as my childs upbringing, and i certainly don't want to be relying on my husbands pension, what happens if you split?

@ourkidmolly that was badly worded, sorry. I didn’t mean that at all, and I have worked full time and part time since having kids. What I meant was that some people think that the benefit to their children of them cutting down their hours or stop outweighs the impact on their careers.

And yes, if we divorce I will be entitled to a share of my husband’s pension pot.

I don’t know what the answer is to the detriment to (usually) women’s careers when they go part time or give up work, but the answer isn’t to tell everyone to stay full time. Our family wouldn’t work if we were both full time; it did when I had one child, but now I have 3 and all the admin that goes with it. I’m younger than my husband so he had a chance to climb a bit higher on the career ladder before having children, so it makes sense for me to be part time.

I do appreciate that this is limiting my ability to get promoted, but I’ve taken that to make my family life run as smoothly as possible.

Don’t really know what my point is 😂

Just that it’s not always as straightforward as future financial risks I suppose, current finances and other life style factors also come into play

yes family money, so why should my career and pension suffer and not his

In the case of the OP because her husband is obviously the higher earner, so her giving up work would have a smaller impact on family finances.