Childcare costs… just fallen off my chair

[Kanfuzed123]

I just did the gov what are you entitled to childcare cost calculator… my childcare costs are £16,000 a year. I have 2 children in part time… part time. I feel faint

So what was the result - what are you entitled to?

tax free childcare up to 3k for both kids a year… nothing I didn’t know already, but the optimist in me checks from time to time. It was the first time though I’d see the yearly amount bam right in front of me..

I thought TFC was up to £2k per child?

Yep. It's barely worth me working.

Yes… up to, that’s the key apparently up to, meaning you might not necessarily get the full 2k per kid

£16,000 a year!

Is that two in full time nursery?

Agreed- it's depressing how much we spent in childcare. When DD turns 3 and we get 30hrs it'll be like a whopping promotion in terms of extra cash! I pay £880 pm for 3.5days a week.

Nope, like I said in my OP it’s part time for both. Shocking right and the nursery as nurses go isn’t a crazy expensive one

The 30 free hrs, i fee personally whilst it helps, it’s a bit of false marketing because it’s reduces the weekly bill by 50% they still charge nearly £20 a day for food!

Yeah, it's frightening. We live in the north west and DD goes to an average nursery here - it's nice but not fancy, we don't live in an affluent area.

£1260 for full-time (5 days a week) per month

What does your nursery charge??!
DD went to a nursery attached to a private school & even at 4 days a week we never had to pay £20 a day for food?

We pay £1600 for one to do four days a week at nursery. It's horrifying.

No desire to be contrary for the sake of it but I do think they earn it!

whilst the 20% tax free helps a bit tbh with a yearly sum like this it barely touches the sides

@PermanentlyTired03 don't forget the 30hours is term time only, if your nursery let's you stretch the funding its 22 hours per week.

Oh fine, yes. It's only £2k if you spend at least £8k. I'm just coming to the end of my one year paying for both and can't wait until DC1 starts school.

I know it will feel like we're rich but reality is we desperately need to build up savings which have funded this year.

That's short term thinking. And yes, you'd probably be worse off in the short term by continuing to work.

But you need to think long term. By continuing to work, even if you're slightly worse off, then you're keeping yourself in the workplace, keeping abreast of new developments, training, development, potentially promotions, etc. You're also still contributing to your workplace/occupational pension, to which your employer is also likely to be contributing significant amounts.

So, you're going to be in a "better place" in a few years time when your kids are in school. If you leave, then you risk losing key skills/abilities, may have to take lower paid/lower prospects jobs to get back into the workplace. Your pension would also have suffered a few years of not having employer contributions paid into yet - yes, invisible in the short term, but could make a big difference when you come to retirement to have a few years of extra employer contributions or years of working taken into account for final salary schemes based on years worked.

You really have to think longer term, think carefully about what kind of job you'd expect to return to in x number of years time, whether you'd get a foot in the door to continue your career or whether doors would be closed and you'd end up in long term low paid/low prospects work, etc.

It's horrific, isn't it. And then the staff are paid fuck all for the work they do. The woman who runs the baby room at ours has had to take a job in the evenings as a carer as her wages no longer pay the bills. She's qualified, good at her job, parents and kids love her. She should be earning a decent amount.

Childcare as a whole is so undervalued and disrespected by the government.

This is why I gave up work, it was not worth the cost and I was working for no extra money, just paying someone else to look after my children up-to 10hours a day. Financially we were better off with me staying at home.

I’ve just checked and mine was £1400 per month for 2 dc part time and that was in 2012 so I think that’s quite standard? It’s from age 1 after mat leave until age 3 when you get free hours (I got 15 but I think it’s 30 a week now). I also had dd1 plus the dtds so earned £17,999 per year which was hardly worth it but meant I kept my skills up and now earn £50k a year which wouldn’t have happened if I’d become a sahm. It’s about long term planning.

I don't understand how they can justify term time only for 30hours. People still need childcare year round and most jobs aren't termtime only! You are right, it's a bit of a false economy

I agree wholeheartedly in theory - I'd pay the kids nursery teachers double that for how amazing they are. Sadly, what we pay isn't what they get. The pay for nursery nurses is piss poor!!!!

We live in an area with stupidly expensive nursery fees. My friend has 2 in nursery (accidental 11 month age gap) at a cost of £38k a year. That’s full time, just under £1,700 a month per child with a 10% sibling discount for her second but it quite honestly extinguished any idle thoughts I might have had about having a second.

Personally, I genuinely wouldn’t begrudge our equally high payment if, as a PP has said, the staff were paid a vastly higher wage than I imagine they’re receiving.

They’ve recently put their prices up to £55 a day, but prior the the price increase I spoke to management on what the fees were like for 30free hrs, she said they take the 30 hrs and spread them over the year so it’s like 22.5 hrs a week and then with 3 days in and the 30 free hrs (prior the price increase) it was £80 a week, sorry £13.50 a day not £20, just re did the maths, but even then that seems incredibly high as we’ve always provided nappies etc separately

Completely agree