Am I missing something - childcare.

[Halie]

I'm currently on mat leave and thinking about what will happen once mat leave ends.

Initially, I planned to return to my job, but currently I'm struggling with how that would work financially. As well as that, I feel very negatively about putting baby into childcare / nursery aged 1. I know it works for some and that's great but for me it's going completely against my instincts especially with the things I read on the news about nurseries.

If I put my child in nursery it's approx £200 per week locally, so £800 per month. We're a 2 income home, but to simplify it, that leaves me with about £1000 left of my wage. However, if I quit my job I can look after my child myself and according to online calculators I would get approx £900 in universal credit and £100 child benefit.

Am I missing something? Why would I go back to work to pay for a stranger to take care of my child when I can leave, do it myself and have a similar income?

What are other people without a village doing and what led to your decisions?

But that would be if you were a single parent

and you’re not

What do you mean by that please?

If your husband earns the same as you then you won’t get universal credit

She means you are living with the father of your child and so aren’t a single parent household.

You won’t get UC if you have a partner with an above average income. You probably won’t be entitled to much if anything over child benefit

I can’t advise on the finance side of things, I’m not entirely sure if you would qualify for as much if you’ve left a job? Or you would be expected to work? I don’t know.

But I went back to work both times because I’d worked hard to get to where I was and leaving for 5-8 years (as I had a second child 3 years later) would have meant I wouldn’t have got my job back, I’d have to start at a much lower level and much lower salary. And to be honest the job market now is so much harder, I’d be worried about getting a job at the end.

You aren’t paying those fees, you both will. It’s a long term plan paying for CC. You lose money at the start, then free hours will kick in, then school….overall you will be better off.
if you are on UC you may struggle to get a job in a few years and you aren’t paying into a pension in that time.

I see. No, that's not the case. I'm the main earner. He earns less than me (barely above min wage). I did enter his wages and details into the online calculator which gave me the approximate figure of £900 UC and £100 child benefit for our household if it was only my husband working.

You get funded hours from 9 months now, plus you'd get the child benefit anyway (which you only seem to be counting if you stay at home) plus potentially still some UC.

But the biggest, biggest benefits by far of staying in employment are your pension and your career progression opportunities and employment skills. As someone with now grown up children, looking at my peers, the ones well off in their 50s and looking forward to comfortable retirements are pretty much those where the woman didn't take a break from their career. It's exceptionally hard to build a career again from scratch if you've had years out of the workforce.

If you're the higher earner, then if anyone should stay home, it should be him. I wouldn't recommend either of you do, though.

That’s a very dangerous game to play OP if you are the mean earner. What happens if you struggle to find work later? Are you renting? Do you have any savings?

Exactly what @dontmalbeconmesaid.

Your pension pot and career hinge on this. Which is why they call it the “motherhood penalty”.

When you decide to return to the workforce when your baby hits school age, or longer if you have more kids, you’re essentially considered totally inexperienced again.

Struggle on one income or benefits - or use the funded hours + child benefit and stay in the workforce.

These are all things that should have been considered before you decided to have a baby though.

Did you put your household income into the calculator? So it would give you that amount based on your DPs salary?

Have you also taken the 30 funded childcare hours and tax free childcare into account?

I can type out his wage and mine combined and minus the childcare but that makes no difference to my post. It's still 800 off the household income per month and the UC prediction is still around the same amount? I'm looking at staying home up to age 3 only. So just the next 2 years. My industry is highly employable so I'm not worried about returning and I will do one morning a week self employed to retain my professional registration (I can't go longer than 1 yr out of work). As for pension, I'd rather raise my own child for 2 important years and build up savings after to place in my private pension.

Do not stop working. The impact is longer term. Your future earnings as well as pension contributions.

both of you need to work. Even if he goes part time. Why would you F yourself financially for ever and ever?

If you don’t like nurseries (& many don’t for kids under 28 months) then please consider childminder which can be more of a home from home.

Yes

Sounds like you've decided to do it anyway, despite it being a very unwise decision which your family will pay the price for in the long run. Not sure why you asked if you'd made up your mind?

P.S you won't just walk back into a same level job, and you won't be able to just build up savings for your pension later. You will find it exceptionally hard getting back into work after time out of the workplace plus trying to juggle childcare etc.

This

How so in terms of future earnings? I'm on NHS agenda for change so as a qualified staff member my salary is set. I have to maintain my professional registration by doing a certain amount of work over the year (not much). So as long as I maintain it, I don't see how my earnings should be impacted when I return? I'll still have my qualification, registration and experience. I can pay back into my pension once I return as I will pay my usual pension (NHS) and top up my private pension with savings.

If myself and husband both went part time we would not be able to pay our mortgage and bills. He won't quit work - he's currently climbing a professional ladder after an undergraduate and masters and he's very career focused. I'm not. I care more about my child than my career despite having climbed up for years previously and now being the main earner. I cannot imagine handing my baby to a childminder.

If your husband is the lower earner, then it would make sense for him to be the stay at home parent, rather than you.

Having said that, I wouldn't advise anyone to give up work completely, much better to go part time if you can, it makes it much easier to ramp back up again when your kids go to school. The childcare years are hard but they are for a relatively short time, whereas if you're stuck looking for a job that works around school when you've been out for a while it is going to have a much longer impact on your earning potential and pension.

So stay at home then!

What about pension contributions? What about losing years of career progression with consequent salary impact in the future when you do go back full time? What about the risk of the government massively cutting benefits and lots of other people in your field also looking for full time work and you not being able to get back in?

If you don’t want your DC in full time nursery, why don’t you and your DH each drop to a 4 day week, then DC gets the benefit of 3 days in nursery and you both get a day one to one with DC and costs are down a bit with less drop in income.

This sounds like a bad decision tbh. If DH is the lower earner, with less prospects then if you as a couple are so against nursery then he should quit and stay home. I don't see why it would be you? As a couple, if you're the higher earner you'll both be relying on your pension in later years as you'll be building a bigger pot - I wouldn't risk that.

And FWIW, there genuinely are very few industries that enable women to seamlessly avoid the motherhood-tax/penalty as much as we wish there were.

With funded hours, tax free childcare etc. it makes sense to work usually.

Have you visited any nurseries or childminders?