Need to go back to work, haven't a clue about nursery fees etc

[sweetkitty]

Due to an unexpected change in our financial circumstances, I need to find a job to bring in some extra desperately needed money. Thing is we used to live in London and I had a v good job but we had DD1 we decided to move back to Scotland (I left in the first place as I couldn't get a job). I haven't been working for 2 years.

Options are:

• work on a Saturday in a shop (if I can get a job that is) but this won't bring in that much money
• get a p/t job during the week and put the DDs in nursery (sorry they are 2.2y and 8mo), theres only about one place where I could possibly get a job I'm qualified for, I'm starting to put together a speculative letter etc to send to them, if they say no it will have to be shop work or something like that (unskilled as I'm not qualified for anything else).
• going back to uni/college to retrain not really an option as we cannot afford it, I have no family support whatsoever so all childcare would have to be paid for
• DP out the house 6am-7pm which make evening work difficult

so the questions I have are

• any idea of nursery fees in central Scotland (I would like to work 12-16 hours a week)
• DP's work do run nursery vouchers but the deadline is past for this year so would be next year before we got them and DD1 would be in nursery anyway
• would I get any WFTC family income of just under 30K?

Sorry thats a bit longwinded any advice would be great

sorry, can't help with it all but for one you sd be able to get childcare vouchers from dh's employer if you make the case for a "life change event" ie yr return to work after having children. In those circs you sd be able to get the vouchers, even tho his HR departmt say deadline passed (we had to do exactly this).
when yr eldest is 3 they will get nursery education grant c. £104 per wk over calendar yr, so future cost will be lower.
Doyopu really want/need ideally to go to uni/college? wdbe huge commitment on top of it all but if you do, you sd have access to subsidised childcare at college nursery and you cd at the v least apply for a Career Development loan up front, building into borrow the cost of childcare (they allow for this). It's repayable within a fewmth of course ending, if you then have a job earning over a certain min. HTH?

Oh and re WFTC - not sure, but sounds like you sd be eligible for something - can you check the website? sure someone on here knows anyway.

Ideally I don't want to go down the college/uni route not right now anyway as it is too costly and also not ideal with 2 young children.

DP went back to uni and did a Masters a few years back and got a career development loan, the interest repayments are horrendous so we switched to an ordinary unsecured loan (we are still paying it )

My area of work is so specialised it's really difficult to get a job in the first place nevermind in Scotland and part time (trust me to chose a career in something so obscure)!

well having trained & specialised, shame not to use it. wd it pay you enough to warrant commuting?
freelancing? working from home?

Can you tell us what field you work in and maybe we can think of some different ideas for you. I stay in central Scotland gave up work when I had DD2 as nursery fees were £135 a week for DD1. Try this site Childcare , this site is also quite good scottish nurseries . If you go for a private nursery which is in partnership with the council in the term after DD1s 3rd birthday you will get help towards funding for me that was approx £90 a month for a fulltime place I think, memory is not what it used to be. HTH.

oh, seb'sright the nurs ed grant is per mth - 104 i think.

Nursery here (northern England though) is £31/day.

That's not too bad then

I used to be a food safety manager specialising in microbiological food safety, I have worked in a lab testing the food (was asst.mgr in the end) then I worked for a supermarket making sure all the food we sold was safe, doing the use by date and also doing hygiene audits where I would visit loads of factories in the UK and Europe and make sure they were doing what they said they were doing.

Theres a lab 5 miles away from here which would be ideal as it's my background and it's not just office hours ie they will need people for evening/weekends etc so more likely to want to do p/t. I'm sending them my cv this week. Ideally I would like maybe 9-1 3 days a week and a weekend (then DP could look after the DDs) so would need 12 hours of nursery per week for the 2 of them. This is ideal of course and they may come back and say get lost! I'm not being funny but it's very unlikely they will find anyone with my experience up here but will they want to pay for it, I'm not expecting huge wages far from it but labwork is really badly paid ont eh whole.

DP's work have a benefits plan where each Sept you decide what you want and they split it across the year, I think you can take up to £290 of vouchers and it only costs £200 or something like that.

My head is spinning and I've only just started.

seb - thanks will look at your links in a mo, might be so not worth my while not to go back but even £50 a week extra would mean so much to us.

I think you will have to pay for 1/2 day at nursery which would be something like £18 at ours. But for your older child you could take nursery grant when the time comes and just pay for lunchtime - something like £8 for the lunch and supervision.

It definitely sounds like it is worth enquiring - especially long term with a foot in the door etc.

sk - that beneifts plan you mention will have to hve been inland revenue apporved and as such will as I said allow you to apply at diff times of yr if you make case for it.

don't have timeto explainmore now as on sch run. but if you're interested, maybe you'rte not can explain mroe later.

So let me think about this

£18 or thereabouts per child per half day is £36 a day or about £112 per week for 12 hours nursery. I would be extremely lucky to earn this.

So when DD1 is 3 (July next year) then she will be entitled to £104 per month towards a nursery place. I always wondered how that worked as most 3 year olds I know have gone to nursery 2 1/2 hours per day and I wondered what happened if you already had your child in nursery and they turned 3 could you keep them at the same nursery and the local auth/govt paid for their 15 hours (or whatever it is)

Looks a bit bleak doesn't it re the nursery route unless we get the vouchers and something from WFTC. Maybe a full Saturday would be more of an option?

First thing is to get my cv in see if they are even interested.

childcare vouchers will save c. 10% of that.

in Ayrshire nursery fees are around £25 per day- quality varies a lot, though.

no point estimating cost. you need to call yr local nurseries to find out exactly what you'd pay, varies hugely. We pay £39 a day.

thanks given me some ideas as least

maybe the best plan would be to wait until DD1 is 3 I don't know won't help our immediate money worries though.

Just went on entitled to and it said I would get £22.03 towards weekly childcare if I worked 16 hours per week and out income stayed under 30K. Seems like even with WFTC, vouchers and me working we wouldn't be that much better off I'll keep repeating my mantra

"it's not forever"

sweetkitty could you perhaps get some seasonal type shop work through Christmas and the sales and then revisit working for the lab when your DD is nearer 3. She will get the grant from next October. When DS was 3 he went to day nursery for 3 days a week and I claimed the 5 sessions within those 3 days.