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.

my point exactly i weren't slagging anyone off just making a point that people do screw the system as all is paid for its unfortunate the other girl has to work so hard but hats off to you your doing it honestly which will have an amazing impact on your children they'll learn to appreciate things in life and know you have to work for it having children is a lesson to everyone and unfortunatly some get it much easier even on benifits some get it much easier than others my facts were straight with what i said she does get all that i guess depending where you come from all goverments are different but i admire the mums that do go out and work it gives you something to be proud of at the end of the day your being a good role model and bringing up future good role models too.

No it isn't fair. Thats the point i was making and its a point thats cropped up on others threads recently. Though unfortunately these sometimes just turn into slanging matches cos some people don't want to have a sensible discussion about it. Every child starts life with 2 biological parents. Whether they choose to stay together or not, or whether circumstances intervene and for whatever reason one parent isn't around should NOT effect entitlement to benefits. Our society has created a situation whereby it is nigh on impossible for families to get by - housing costs, childcare costs etc put terrible pressure on hundreds of thousands of ordinary people who just want to have a couple of kids, go to work and live a decent life. I too get mad when i see people who fiddle the system, or single parents who are sitting at home with kids at school all day, still not prepared to get a job and being paid (by my sodding taxes!) to do nothing.

we earn £11 a week too much to get help with the coucil tax, so we get nought

couple I'm talking about get all theirs -- paid £150 a month

really annoys me when the woman says to me "you look really tired"

yes cos I'm working till 2 in the morning trying to make ends meet

and their curtains aren't drawn till 11 in the morning, we're up at 6 for dh's work!

God I'd better stop now, getting madder

yeah i know how you feel my partner works 20 hour days we have to pay 155 a month council tax thats without rent and bills and i get 10 pound a week in family tax credits as his wages are just over to qualify for working tax and that 10 pound will go down as my son gets older which is great as expence becomes more as he gets bigger and my mate is around town spending money like its never ending as her boyfriend is working full time so she can squander the benifits on new clothes i wish for such luxuries but just because i'm pointing out few single parents i know doesn't mean i'm classing all under same catagory its no differewnt to single parents looking apon us as having it so easy when my partner doesn't get to see his son much its impossinble for me to get work due to his work commitments i do all the parenting without being able to earn my own money and all our bills are sky high we don't get any help at all so all of us that are doing things the right way single or not we can all feel sorry for ourselves but we all need to stick together not think the whole world is against us and persume were slagging off by voicing an opinion we all know there are people out there doing it but its not us well done to all of us that do sacrifice

Why is it that most of us now of people who are using the system unfairly and don't say. I now a couple who don't live together to ensure she gets full housing, council tax, income support etc makes me mad. Also now couple who do live together but have decided not to say anything have done so for over 3 yrs and he works she gets full everything as claims she's a single mum but she's not. Though about reporting to benefit fraud on line as it's my taxing paying for her new designer shoes!!!!!!!! I can bloody afford them! but she's a friend and I'd fill guilty if she was taken to court or sent down for it but it's stealing from us all. My dh said if someone came into my house and stole money from my purse would I call the Police and report it - I answered YES I would - then he said my friend are doing the same as it's tax money I'm paying used to support them why will I not report them. I said because they are my friend! Feel so sorry for genuine claimers as it's people like my friends that give most single parents on benefits or couples on benefits bad names. Would you report these people or just leave it like I have?

Is looking after small children only work when they are not your own children? Is that why working in childcare is so incredibly well paid?

i have just left it i want to report them but i dont feel its my business i always said if i had the guts i would of done it who am i to judge in time there time will come and they will have huge bills to pay back to goverment i would just rather stay out of it as much as it makes me mad its not going to stop other people doing it and it wont change our situation so let them get on with it if ewere honest were all a bit jealous but we wont have to worry when goverment catch on its a risk they all take leave em to it they cant do it forever

bubblagirl
hope your right I've done nothing as well but friend being doing this for over 3 years this time done it many times in the past have no faith in government when will they track her down. It's so unfair that we have to work hard to make ends meet and others just sit back and take hand outs there not entitled too. If genuine claiming I have no problem just fed up with thieves

I wouldn't grass up the couple I'm talking about because I like them and I'd feel guilty! Just couln't do that sort of thing.

makes me really angry though when we're working so hard just to get by and they've got the same as us without lifting a finger

PS don't believe the government will ever catch them, have seen people living like this for YEARS

I agree about needs must. Dh works nights so I work days. We never have time together especially as a family. We chose it though as couldnt afford two lots of childcare when dd came along. I wouldnt change it though as it means we can work.

madamez,i assume you are taking the pi$$ when you say childcare is so well paid?!
at the risk of having eggs thrown at me,i have to say that as a single parent myself who has worked 50+ hours a week for the past ten years to pay off the £25.000 debt my ex husband left me and to keep myself and my children in food,clothes etc.. it is a little upsetting when people have to refer to single parents all the time when it comes to benefit cheats.
dont all jump on me,i am merely expresiing my opinions as you all have!

i get just as totally and utterly pissed off with people cheating the system when i have had and still have a constant struggle to make ends meet and still have to work 50 hours a week.however i dont let the cheats get away with it! if i know someones doing something they shouldnt then they get a phone call made about them to the relevant services.weather i know them or not its wrong and they shouldnt get away with it.

smeeinit,
Not having a dig at single parents or couples who are on benefits correctly. Just totally p*ed off with the ones who are on benefits incorrectly whilst the rest of of work to make ends meet and it's our taxes support these theivies. Hats you to you for working so much with children it must be very hard and your a credit to all single parents.
The fact is that single parents do receive more benefits because they not to be able to work were as couples always tend to have 1 person working. So when benefits come up single parents will always be mentioned. These nothing wrong with being a single parent I'm only angry with couples who claim they are single parents to get monies they are not entitled too.
Although I feel guilty and also don't like I can live with the guilt of not doing anything so have today reported 3 people for benefit fraud. Sorry friends but I've told you to your faces that it's totally out of order and wrong and telling me you'll go legal when you can afford it is pure crap. You'll never be able to afford but if we can manage legally so should you.

Well done you. I would definitely report any one who i knew was cheating the system. I think the point about stealing money from out of your purse is spot on. Thats what it is - stealing. I too worry about whether these people will be dealt with harshly enough if they're caught. Clearly there's not enough deterrent for benefit fraud to be so widespread. But we've at least got to do our bit by alerting the authorities when we know its going on.

Reported them to on line benefit fraud line and also the council has a benefit fraud on line page where you can mention if people are getting housing and council benefit so I have done both. Feel a like guilty as they are friends but also fed up of getting angry with them and sitting back and doing nothing that makes me wrong. It's like complaining that the Prime minister is crap but if you didn't bother to vote one way or another you have no right to complain. I complain about benefit cheats 24/7 yet sit back and let people do it - just realized that that makes me as bad as them!!!! Am happy that I've stood up to the plate

well done cgom!
i know its not easy reporting people you know,particually if they are friends,but cheating the sysytem is wrong and why the fck should tax payers have to pay to keep these cheating b*tards!
well done you!

smeenit: yes, sorry forgot to put the sarcasm icon in there...one of the more intractable problems about childcare is how to make it affordable for the lower-paid parent without making the wages paid to the actual childcarers even lower than they already are...

And I can't raise much enthusiasm for grassing up alleged benefit cheats. Large corporations steal far more by fiddling their taxes, yet that is seen as less awful than some poor sods struggling to keep themselves and their families fed and housed.

madamez
have no problems grassing up companies - it's a proven that that 1 in 10 people would report their boss for fiddling taxes.
In by previous job I told c&e of numerous corporate tax cheats - no worries on that one

Most companies don't fiddle their taxes. They are audited and rarely do so. You are allowed to try to pay as little tax as you lawfully can however which is why a couple could decide both to work so they get two single person's allowances rather than one work. That is tax reductino through conduct and is lawful avoidance ,not evasion which is a criminal offence and illegal. There's no point in paying more tax than legally you're obliged to pay within the law which how all of us individuals and companies operate. Of course some left wing people could if they chose pay double the tax the Government says is due for them to help the country but they rarely do.

Affordable childcare - hard. If we made the minimm wage £10 an hour the parents woudl earn that and still have to pay £10 an hour for childcare. One method is free state run care which is used a lot abroad and in fact grandparents are used more than anything in the UK.

i agree that companies want to pay the minimum amount of tax they can legally no problem with this at all - it's good business sense - did this with dh company. But the companies I'm talking about paid employers cash in hand to avoid tax and ni contributions. Failed to buy correct road tax. Failed to insure said fleet. Put additional fuel receipts through accounts that local station gave them when people didn't take receipts. Brought new furniture and home computers and put through company accounts as office furniture etc. Got office accounts to pay services of alarms, boilers etc put down as office services. Even put in invoice for company Christmas party they never held and uniform cleaning they never did. They did not declare all work carried out for customers and and would raise a windows invoice and not log this on sage anywhere so boss could pocket the money - cheques being made out in person names not company name. Only did this to customer they known to be domestic and not corporate so to not leave a paper trail. Agree most companies are not this unlawful but they all put things through the company accounts which are questionable with the accountancies like ordering 10 new computers for the office that only needed 8? why should company pay for the additional 2 when they were for the directors personal use this should come out of their own net wages or drawings - all taxable.

charl, in that case I absolutely agree - that's tax evasion, a criminal offence and in fact the tax office try to concentrate on those large cases because per man hour they make a greater recovery than some mother on benefits doing a bit of cash in hand whatever it might be.

One answer to the childcare issue is try to think of something that pays you really well so the childcare cost is so much lower but that depends on your work and qualifications. My sister say is a psychologist and I think she charges about £80 an hour so for her childcare is going to be at most an eigth of her hourly rate (even less for me). So I suppose it call comes back to making sure our children get As at A levels and then make decent career choices so they're not caught in poverty traps and unable to afford childcare. I keep buying them careers books for Christmas but I fear they aren't read.

I wish Childcare workers were well paid, i charge 3.25 per hour per child, yes I have 3 full times and 2 parttimers, last year my incoming before expenses was around the 18,000 mark my expenses came to around the 11,000 mark, and that is for working a 50 hour week with only 15 days off the whole year, including bank holidays, how is that well paid!

Child care work ISN'T well paid HOWEVER I think it's worth pointing out that many people choose to do it for other reasons. Two friends of mine registered as Childminders when they had their own kids and wanted a way of being able to stay at home with their own kids, organise their own day (ie still do toddler groups, shopping etc) and earn some money. They weighed this up against having to go out to work and pay for their own kids to be looked after and obviously felt it was the best option for them.

I do it cos quite simply I love the job, been doing it for 26 years.

wish I could be a child minder but with 3 children under 4 yrs ofsted will only allow me before and after schoolers so over 5's this would not give me the same income as working 16 hours a week. Also not sure I could do it although fully trained (used to nanny and work in nurseries)it's not for me at all. love dc but they drive me mad don't think I could handle other peoples as well.