Question for part-time workers ...

[Millie1]

No obligation to answer but I'm just curious .... after you've paid your childcare costs, how much of your wages are you clearing each month? Guess I'm just trying to figure out if it's worth going back for around £200 a month post childcare. TIA

About £600 per month after childcare costs.

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when we had 2 in the nursery, i earned about £100 more than our fees...but this was obviously eaten up by travelling expenses, etc so I worked effectively for nothing for more than a year

iwork 2 evenings a week for £50 - 60 per week and because its evenings i have no childcare costs

its all relative - £200 a month to me is loads but to some its not that much

nailpolish I think it might relate to how many hours you put in eg

work 10 hrs a week for £60 and keep all of it, or

work 30 hrs a week and only make £60 after cost of childcare

• I would do the first but not the second

agree iota

can totally see your point of view as my boss asked me if could work daytime but all my money from the daytime shift would be on childcare -so whats the point?

I work 2 days a week and clear c£600 after childcare costs and have no travel costs as work from home. When I have my 2nd though it won't be worth my while working and paying for 2 children at nursery tbh.

Thanks all - you're right Nailpolish that it's all relative. Am just weighing up my options - probably in favour of not going back ... it'd be 2 days one week, 3 the next so averaging it out, I'd be working for less than £10 a day after childcare ... that's what, £1.20-odd an hour ... hmmmm think that spells it out. On the other hand it might be nice to spend some time with adults! [indecision emotion needed here!]

its such a nightmare isnt it

could you find out if you would be entitled to any tax relief that might help a bit?

i know what you mean about the adult company...

DH's work has just started a voucher scheme, apparently it is available for everyone (though I'd never heard about it) you can have £200 of your salary paid in childcare vouchers which is then exempt from tax. Our nursery take the vouchers so we are going to start doing this and I will pay more into savings from then on...

Lizzylou ... have just read about those vouchers in this month's Tatler whilst sitting in beauticians - will enquire! Nailpolish ... I reckon no tax relief due to DH's income

about £500 a month

Not sure if it will be any help to you. What you could do, is ring the Inland Revenue to find out what your financial position would be, because it really does all depend on what your household income is, what percentage of childcare costs you will pay.

For example, because I am a lone parent and on a very low income, the IR pays 70% of my childcare costs and plus I get working tax credit. So in fact, the govt. subsidised me to the tune of about 50% of my income. However, depending on your household income, your childcare costs may only be subsidised to the tune of 10%, 30%, 50%, nothing and on top of that you may be entitled to working tax credit - only a call to the IR would give you relatively accurate info. They do have a helpline. Here's a link to their tax credits page.

tax credits

If your HH income is too high, most nurseries do voucher schemes, where your childcare costs are taken out prior to taxation. This is a benefit for everyone, I think, not just those on a low income. But you need to find out from the nursery about their particular scheme.

i take home nothing after childcare - two children with nanny.
was making something reasonable-ish with just one in nursery, but then hand DS2.

i work to keep my job open / hand in. i'd loose the option to work in this field ever again, so it's the long term earnings i'm in it for.

some people here actually loose money for working.

DH earns too much for tax credits to help, but the tax-free vouchers will do to the tune of about £2k per year (that's all that makes it break even for me).

to think about:

• if you've only 1 child, it - obviously - gets worse with 2. do you want to go back now only to give up after child no.2?
• would you be paying for 3days childcare every week? if so 15% of your childcare costs are going on when you're not working. could you do a regular 2 or 3 days every week instead?

Tax credits were great until the IR messed up completely. They told me at one stage that I owed them £1,800 due to them overpaying me small amounts over two years . Thankfully, they just stopped my working tax credit for 18 months (but carried on paying child tax credits) and then when I got married and asked them to stop paying me anything they then wrote off the rest of it. Was very scary at one point though!

The frustrating part was that I'd told them about every single change in my wage - they didn't change the amount they were giving me though and what I didn't realise was that I was also supposed to tell them whenever I did overtime.

Will never ever apply for tax credits again after that fiasco!

Thanks everyone ... have just got back on here after a stressful few days! Will look into the vouchers through my employer. SF ... nursery will charge me for whatever no of days the children (2) are there. In many ways I'd be going back so as not to cut all links with my company just now ... it seems a big step and would be v. difficult to get similar job/salary (even if it seems much less being pro-rata) where I live. When DS1 starts school next year, we think I would probably give it up and try to find something with school-friendly hrs as we'd like me to be home in the afternoons.

Food for thought and have a little time to think about it ... some more!

Nailpolish, forgive me if I've asked you this before! , what is it you do?

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