Struggling! Single full time working mum with 1 yr old.

[Mumma2one]

Hi all, just looking for some advice really I work full time (39 hours) therefore my son goes to nursery full time (4 days a week) from day one of me back to work he was with His gran for a day too but that soon fizzled out after many cancelled days and I have no other relatives that could help out as they all work full time too. I private rent that being £500pm then have all the usual bills on top as well as running a car. His nursery fees are usually around £690-750 per month and I feel like I'm spending everything I have and I'd be no better off dropping a day in work. I earn 17K and my little one LOVES nursery I couldn't take that away and I like being a working mum I just feel so drained living paycheck to paycheck I get the obvious tax credits and working tax which is a big help with nursery fees but doesn't cover everything and I get no help with rent or anything as I "earn too much" it's difficult! Every month I'm at the end of my overdraft and I hide it from everyone because I have no one to really talk to about it as no one has been in my position. Any advice or is this just life now till school starts? It's a long 4 years xx

Hi. Sorry to hear you are struggling. Have you applied for housing benefit making them aware of your sustantial childcare costs? These costs should be disregarded from the housing benefit calculation, i.e. These costs are not considered as part of your income if they are paid back out in childcare. I don't want to get your hopes up, and it is difficult to know if you would qualify due to unknown level of tax credits, but it might be worth checking this out. S x

You get 15 hours free from age 3 but in some areas / circumstances you can get them from age 2.

another thought is to put forward a good case for a pay-rise

Dixie is right childcare costs are excluded from income for HB purposes. Go back to the council and ask for a re calculation.
Also if you childcare costs are on average more than £175 a week you can use childcare vouchers from your employer but ONLY for the amount above the £175. The part below the £175 that isn't covered by childcare tax credits usually 30% you have to pay.

Sympathies. It's brutally tight. But if you can, hang on in there. Once the free hours kick in finances get easier, and again once they are at school (I do child care swaps with friends etc to make the school hols affordable)

Does their dad contribute anything? Have you been through the child maintenance service and made sure they are paying everything they should??

It's worth working if you can, even if you're scraping away you are still benefitting from things like pensions contributions, career advancement etc. My friends trying to find jobs when their kids start school are not finding it easy to just pick back up where they started

Doesn't mean it isn't brutal now though, but my message from out the other end is to hang on in there if you possibly can and take all the benefit and help you can - hand me down clothes etc from friends massively helped me out