HELP URGENT

[susanamotavilas]

HI

we are moving to East Croydon or Purley.
We have two children a girl with 3 years and a boy with 10 months. We are not from London so everything is new to us.
We start to work at 28 of November, everything was very fast.
Can you help me to find a school to my childrens. I already made some calculations and we only have right to the Child benefit.
All the schools (nurseries) i find are very expensive.

I'm feeling very scare because i'm affraid that we do noto have any place were they can stay when we start working. We do not have any family in London and no one that we know so well that we can trust to take care of our babies.

Can you help me if you know any nurseries free or less expensive in East Croydon or Purley. And who does it works in London the state nurseries.

Thank you very much.

Susana

Nurseries aren't free. You can get 15 hours a week paid for by the government for 3 and 4 year olds but this is usually set as 3 hours a day 5 days a week.

What will your working hours be? Are you moving from another country? What plans had you made for child care before making the decision to move to London?

Yes i'm moving from another country in this moment i'm unemployed and is hard to find a work. Our problem is that we do not have money to pay all the bills in our country. And we have a proposal in London to work in a company in Regent's Avenue.
My working hours will be from 9:00 to 18:00 or if i get earlier i will leave earlier.

It was everything very fast so the plans we are making now. Finding Houses and so on. We Know East Croydon and Purley and we like these areas. But the priority is to find schools for the children. We have bills to pay in our country so the salary will be to pay the bills here and the bills in London. That's why i'm looking for something good but not very expensive.

Tell me is better to look somthing near my working place to put the children?

Thanks for the help

Sorry but child care is very expensive in the UK. You could look at Childminders as well as nurseries, but you will also have issues with hours as most providers will only offer a maximum of 10 hours child care (it used to be a government maximum but I think it may have changed). So you will have to have your working hours plus commuting within these hours, around here most nurseries shut at 6 pm. Can you drop your children at nursery and your husband/partner collect them?

You are also not looking for a school but for child care, children do not start school until they are 4, and then you will need care before and after school.

London is very expensive for both housing and childcare. May I ask what job you have been offered? Have you seen how much rent is in London?

Nurseries are expensive.

My three went to Brightsparks Day Nursery which has sites at Woodcote High school (where my sons went) and at The Colonades (where my daughter went more recently) which is in a big complex off the Purley Way - ample packing, easy to drop off and pick up.

Yes you've put this question under primary education but children don't start primary school until the September after they're 4. You may well find it unaffordable to have both of you working those hours with two children in childcare plus London rent to pay unless your jobs have very high salaries.

Regent's Avenue doesn't sound like the right address? Are you sure you are not being spammed with the job offer? There is only one Regent's Avenue and this is no-where near Croydon/Purley (or even central London). You may want to check the job is genuine.

If you are workign from 9 to 6 you will probably need childcare from 8.00 to 19.00 unless you are working in Purley too. A nursery will cost at least £35 per day per child - probably more. A childminder will be cheaper, but not that much cheaper for the hours you need.

In the UK it is not unusual for almost ALL of one salary to be spent on childcare, with the other salary being used for everything else. There are no free state nurseries.

The job is next to Green Park Tube Station. The ideia is living in a place we already know: East Croydon or Purley (we are already looking for houses).
So probably is best to take the children with me and try to find a place for them next to my job where i can go pick them earlier.

Our salary is the medium salary that was why i made the question about free state nurseries.

Tell me how do you do with babies you stay at home with them? because the nurseries for babies are very expensive.

Most nurseries have long waiting lists (some 1 to 2years), so don't assume you will be able to get a place straight away. And yes, they are very expensive, in region of £1000 per child per month. If you have two children at nursery age, sometimes it's easier if one of the parents looks after them at home.
On a positive note, once you sort out your child benfit, you might be entitled to Tax credits and up to 70% refund of nursery fees. But again this depends on your earnings.
Good luck.

Well what we did was plan our children so one was at nursery having a free place each morning when I had my second baby. Also my husband works daytime and I work evenings so we actually don't need childcare to be able to go to work.

What is this medium salary? Will it cover childcare, rent, bills and transport as well as the bills you have back in your home country? Do you mean it's the average national wage?

Do you mean the job is in Regent's St? Do you mind giving us an indication of what you consider a medium salary and what the job actually is? If you can't pay the bills in your own country, are you really sure about moving here where you will have to pay a deposit up front for a home, face all kinds of start-up costs for moving, insurance, TV licence etc etc and then find childcare. London is a very expensive city!

You may also want to consider living within better reach of Green Park Station i.e. on the Jubilee or Picadilly underground lines for an easier commute to work-nursery-home.

Maybe one of you can start work in the New Year once you've had a chance to settle childcare options?

Most people try to have one parent at home or with hours that don't overlap each other so you don't have to pay too much. I have a 2 and 3 year old and pay £1,900 - and neither are full time, 3 days each!

Good luck; hope it all works out.

If your wage and you husbands wage together total less than £41,000 then you may get some help with nursery fees - it depends exactly on how much you both earn and how much the nursery costs. The maximum you can get is I think around £100 per child per week. You will have to be an EU citizen to qualify.

If you can tell us how much you and your partner will be earning we can give you much better advice.

As the others have said, London is very expensive, and it is very difficult to live in London with children on average salaries and have money left over after paying for all costs of living here.

I'm going to have a salary around 35000 per year my husband is a little more but not much more.

If you say you just have right to child benefit, your combined income is probably over 41000, you need also to be aware that from jan 2013 you won't get that anymore if one of you earns over 41000. We live outside London, but commutable and to be honest even here few parents with more than one preschooler both work at the same time because it is too expensive, unless you have family help or really want to keep career going so happy to subsidise it. When I finished my part time job, expecting dd2 realised although my salary would have been over 30000pa if full time, each day after paying for childcare and travel would only have 2 pounds left, just wasn't worth it.

With a combined income of more than £70,000, you will not get any govt help towards fees.

A salary of £35,000 will generate a take home pay after taxes of £500 per week and from this you will need to take out both the cost of commuting and the cost of childcare.

The childcare costs will probably come to at least £350 per week and the commute will cost around another £50 for a zone 5/6 travelcard, So you will only be left with £100 per week appx.

If you both work on similar salaries you will have around £550 between you each week after paying childcare and commuting. At around £2,400 net per month you will not have much left after paying for rent and normal living costs. Expect to pay around £800-£1,100 to rent a property.

listentotaxman.com is a site where you can put in your exact amounts and see this.

Sorry there isn't better news - this is the reality of the cost of living in the UK when you have young children.

Nursery at £35 a day sounds cheap to me - in my town in the South East, Nursery for a baby is £52 a day (at the cheapest Nursery).

I think it would be £100 a day for two in nursery. So £2k a month.