I can't afford to work

[pilipala]

Hi there, can anyone offer some advice please?! I have a 2 year old and a 6 month old..... the problem is the price of childcare..... in the cheapest nursery I've found it'd still cost £56.00 a day. I simply can't earn much more than that per day.... I've tried working on Saturday and Sunday evening 4-10 but found it made me ill as I was loosing valuable 'me time'/sleep time when my babies go to bed. My partner would like to see me on the weekends so would rather I didn't work ALL DAY on the weekends..He works shifts during the week so I can't work week evenings either. We can't really afford for me not to work and I'd happily return full time if I could afford childcare..... anyone been in the same predicament and found a solution?! It makes me so angry that the government are not providing us with affordable childcare when they expect us to work. Any advice gratefully receivced.

No advice but bumping for you.

LOL - become a childminder!

hi i'm in exactly the same situation i want to go back to work but simply cannot afford to we are penalized for being a couple yet looked down apon when a single mum but ijn akll honesty your much better off as a single mum my friend gets housing paid for education paid for and free child care and they wonder why so many people screw the system and say there single when there not i've tried finding work to do from home that dont insist i pay so0 much money first or deliver catol;ogues i have 22 month old son who will be at nursery in about 6 months but still doesnt give me opportunity to go to work as my partner works long hours as well as working away all you can do maybe if your partner is home of an evening if you have any offices near by see if they have any cleaning vacancies few nights aweek then you'll only be out few hours a week i had the oppotunity to do that which would of been great but my partner never kno=ws from one day to the next what he is working so i cant but if you hear of any good work from home let me know x good luck

it's been suggested I become a childminder but I really do think that'd drive me mad
I think I'm in a bit of a 'no win' situation here. Tho I will contact a childminder t'see if they have a suggestion.... just thought I'd ask on the 'off chance' I hadn't thought of anything...thanks for replies

Well it really is a case of needs must isn't it. There are quite a few parents on this site who work in the evenings or weekends so their DPs can look after the children and so save on childcare costs.

It must have an impact on their family lives, but if you need to earn money there isn;t much of an option is there?

Perhaps there is a way you could earn money working from home?

Hi Bubblagirl,
Thanks for response. It really is annoying, the government should be putting a ceiling the private nurseries who are upping their fees every year, the only way I could afford to work would be if I were a doctor or something! If I come across something interesting will let you know. Good luck too.

you could start your own e bay business i'm selling things on there that my son no longer needs my cousin also has set a business up on there and gores round boot sales and charity shops for stock can be good to fill time and brings in money even if you just done that for short amount of time but it can become a great earner if dedicated i've not done to bad out of it

thats really great if you have family that live near by to look after children but not every body else has the fortune of that and as my partner works 20 hour days unless my shift was to start at 2am i'd still have to vbe back by 5 am so he can go to work again and then when he's working away i wouldn't be able to work not many employers will be happy to find out the day before that i cant come to work and dont know for how long for i doubt id stay employed for long so i need something from home so i can guarantee i stay in work

hi pilipala, does your dp qualify for working tax credit at all? i'm not sure how it works but if you fit certain criteria they pay some towards your childcare, not sure if you both have to be working at the moment or not?? I do Avon to earn an extra bit of money, that helps quite a bit and its nice to just push dd round in the buggy to get her out too, also nice to meet people. anyway, hope you sort something out, it can be a vicious circle cant it

Have you thought about doing some sort of party-plan? I started selling fairly traded and sterling silverjewellery by myself about 8 months ago, and ended up setting up my own company. I now take on self-employed consultants to work doing parties to earn extra cash. It's kind of a stipulation that family comes first, and fit the parties in around them.

Most of my consultants tend to fit their work into things coffee mornings, mother and toddler groups, school fetes, garden fetes etc, you know, things where you can take the kiddies with you. Then they do parties in the evening for a couple of hours when they know their DH's DP's etc can have the children.

I have a 4 year old and a 10 month old, and apart from evening parties, I take them everywhere with me!

pilipala where abouts in the country are you?

A childminder will be cheaper than a nursery, worth looking into.

Hiya Funkimummy
I am looking into that option with a few companies, it's all bit frustrating, it's true to say I got myself into this predicament but had no idea how little help there is available. Am going to look into finding a child minder too.

Pilipala, you're quite right. It's very frustrating. If you feel like giving it a go, you can always email me or check out my website for more info if you are considering joining.

I'm not going to embarrass myself by trying to do a link, so email is [email protected] and website is www.funkijunkjewellery.co.uk. There's also an ad on the job board on MN.

Good luck

xx

Returned to work Monday and had this problem plus with 3dc under 4 took ages to find a childminder who could take them. Returned for 16 hours only and tax credits pick up rest but only own just less than smp per month but we can live on this just.
Big help is government childcare vouchers. Gordon Brown has stated that working parents can have £55.00 a week from their wages before tax & NI being removed so a parent claiming this would save over £2000 a year and the company will save £390 something on NI contributions. (Busybee vouches). However, it's been left to the employer to choose if they want to join scheme and mine is digging it's heels in. If they did this I could increase hours as normally I pay childcare from net wage so for example £40 a week. If I got vouches the child minder would still get £40.00 but I'd only pay £30 out of net wages saving me £10 a week. Ask employer to join. I think all parents should join together and make Gordon Brown make employers do this if he wants more parents to work. If your dh employer did it also you could save over £5000 a year in childcare have a look at childcare vouches on line

id like to know how this single parent gets childcare and housing free. Im a single parent and i dont get that, it is barely worthwhile me working as a single parent. i only work o set an example to my kids. so please get yopur facts straight before slating single parents.

its so frustrating isn't it

a childminder round here charges £6 an hour for my 2 kids but as I gave up work ages ago to bring the kids up myself I only earn £5.75 an hour now

so I work evenings/weekends around dh working but its just a struggle

tax credits would help but I don't work 16 hrs a week so don't qualify

Like I said returned for 16 hrs a week and I told child tax credits all the figures etc. Work this out if I got mum to do childcare for free tax credits would pay x amount. If i get the child minder to do 5 hrs of the 16 and pay her £40.00 I get x + £46.00 a week. so now i'm better off by £6.00 for using a childminder. Who the hell are tax credits calculated seems made.
my dh earns the same as his friend. his friends 3dc are all over 6 yrs old. ours 3dc are all under 4 1 entitled to baby element. when friends wife and i don't work they get paid more than we do how is this possible.
Again I'd state look at busybee's web site it will save all parents a bomb and it doesn't cost employers anything other than wages department a few more minutes per wage slip and they save £390 per employee on scheme.
Gordon Brown needs to make this law that parents get paid.
My friends a single mum and like amazinwoman has to pay all her own bills and child care. Hats off it's not easy for anyone whether single or a couple but if your single who can take over when the kids drive you so mad your about to pop? Total admiration for single parents very impressed when they work a number of mine friends don't just live on benefits in council housing and receive no support from fathers. Amazinwoman my friend does get busybee vouches and this saves her a lot of money and your legally entitled to it if you pay tax and NI so look at the web and push your employer to join the scheme.
think I'm going to have to take mine to tribunal before they will give me my vouches

Tax credits work on a couple application i believe so as long as dh or dp works over 16 or 30 hrs your entitled to claim just have to state your hours and earning.

but you personally need to be working 16 hrs or more to get help with childcare costs

I totally sympathise - this country is a joke. Married and cohabiting partners are penalised - the facts are that it IS easier to draw benefits as a single parent which is a disgrace. Everyone should be treated equally when it comes to the welfare system. Surely everyone must have heard the big item in the news about, how shock horror, single parents might lose their benefits when their youngest child is 11 rather than 16?? This kind of thing must seem like a sick joke to people like you pilipala who have 2 pre school children and need to work. I don't think there are any simple answers, but I do know how u feel. Once we had more than one child i was working for nothing for a while - the childcare took just about all my earnings, and i only hung on in there for the sake of keeping my job for the long term

at no point am i slating single parents if your refering to me just pointing out a fact that my friend has housing paid for and has been sent to college to help get her back into work free of charge where if i wanted to do that it would cost me hundreds for a course as well as picking up childcare costs so im sorry if i affended you but no where in my message was i slating anybbody just pointing out a fact that couples dont get it easy and yet were looked down apon too when that agonizing question comes along so what work do you do when you going back to work and i know for a fact that when on benifitss its much easier as i do have family and friends on benifits and they all admit they couldn't afford to go to work as they would never afford to live to pay for rent and council tax ect i know both sides of the story

Fiddle with the figures at entitled.co.uk to see how many hours you would be best working.

agree single parenthood must be bloody hard and my story is not of a single parent but someone pretending to be one

there's a couple near me with kids, she claims to live alone, they get all bills paid

one day me and her compared income/outgoings, she's better off than me dh works 38 hours, I clean/babysit/work in a shop at weekends to cobble money together

both the couple near don't work, told me they can't afford to work

ITS NOT FAIR