Student Childcare Expenses..odd situation

HOLsale

hi, this is my first time posting on this board though i'm a frequent in the ebay and money saving old style boards

anyway my dh is doing a 1 year MSC and received AHRC funding this year (HALLELUJAH!) however this has thrown everything all askew big time


I'm self employed working 35 hours per week. last year dh was working part time (20 hours per week) and doing the MSC part time (he had to start again fresh this year to get the funding :rolleyes: ) we were getting ONLY the childcare element of Child tax at £105/week and no working tax but i was able to work pretty much as much as i wanted as our schedules had plenty of flexibility and my work rarely has set hours.

now i'm still working 35 hours per week but a lot of it is setting up several websites (hour intensive no pay) and doing a lot of ebay and amazon sales (again intensive and low pay) as well as some of my merchandising that i was doing before.

dh is now studying full time+ hours per week, really does NOT have any flexibility in his schedule and by the rules of his funding is NOT ALLOWED to work more than 6 hours per week and those hours have to be doing something academic (tutorial assitant, demonstator etc) however he doesn't have the time and they really do discourage you from working at all

when i had to do my tax credits back in sept i reported our change in circumstances. dh was no longer working and they don't count the grant as income so that is good BUT they will NOT under any circumstances consider his studying as employment so because we are a couple we no longer meet the requirments for the childcare element because it says that both people must work at least 16 hours per week

i explained to them about my situation and they suggested getting an allowance from the University or the AHRC

well here's the crux... neither of these places will give us any money for childcare because....wait for it....


I'M NOT A STUDENT :mad: :mad: :mad:

appearantly to get an allowance for childcare you BOTH have to be students. the AHRC and the Uni both told us to go to child tax credits people :mad:

this is obviously a very unfair situation and we really MUST find a way around it. it's not like my dh is some kind of waster and i'm not some stupid cow that sits smoking fags and turning herself orange with self tan while painting her nails in burbury all day either

i'm now getting working tax and child tax (not childcare element) at only 89/week so it doesn't seem like a huge loss BUT we could barely afford it then and my work is so sporadic it makes getting by hard

i'm now to the point that because of this i've had to pull her down from 5 half day sessions to only 2 and that's still a hardship as we're paying back and extra £100/month because we've fallen way behind due to all of this

now i CAN'T work more outside the home, i CAN'T even get a conventional job because i cannot under any circumstances get help paying for it! there is no way out for me to get more money basically, i can't earn it because they've backed me into a corner!

so i'm wondering if we've missed something? does anyone know anywhere we could apply for help?


you see, as much as i love my daughters the 3 half days i now have her here with me have reduced my working ability by about 40-50% of what i was capable of before (when they would pay for her childcare :mad: ) and that's on top of all our other troubles... she's very demanding of my attention, as she should be at this age (4) and i don't want the telly raising my daughter but i don't know what else i can do

jobbingmusician

Thinking laterally - have you thought of becoming a very very part-time student? The rules seem so silly that this is the first and only thing I can think of off the top of my head that might help!

HOLsale

jobbingmusician wrote:

Thinking laterally - have you thought of becoming a very very part-time student? The rules seem so silly that this is the first and only thing I can think of off the top of my head that might help!

sorry, should have mentioned you have to be a FULL time student

makes no sense to me

thanks anyway though

zar

Reading the leaflet about the childcare element, this appears to be another case where government policy has not thought about couples where one half is working and the other is a student - even though there are lots of us out there. :mad:

I have no personal experience to offer I'm afraid, but has your husband tried talking to the students union as well as the university? They might be more helpful in finding other grants etc. Perhaps they might even take on the inland revenue for you! Most universiies have hardship grants so perhaps he could apply for one of those?

I think some universities might be better at considerations of childcare than others, does your dh's university have a subsidised childcare facility for example that might be cheaper than where she goes now?

zar

What a surprise it appears that if your DH was an undergraduate there would be help available! (sorry I know postgrads are in the minority but we still exist!) Just in case you haven't already seen it, there is a leaflet at

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/studentsupport/uploads/ACGrev.pdf

It does say, "If you need extra help to meet your childcare costs, you may also apply for the
discretionary Access to Learning Fund from your university or college."

The rest of the leaflet talks about LEAs etc so seems to be assuming you are an undergraduate.

Googling "childcare working tax credit postgraduate student" brings up other university webpages, it seems that the access to learning fund at your DH's univerisity is the most likely source of help.

HOLsale

zar wrote:

What a surprise it appears that if your DH was an undergraduate there would be help available! (sorry I know postgrads are in the minority but we still exist!) Just in case you haven't already seen it, there is a leaflet at

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/studentsupport/uploads/ACGrev.pdf

It does say, "If you need extra help to meet your childcare costs, you may also apply for the
discretionary Access to Learning Fund from your university or college."

The rest of the leaflet talks about LEAs etc so seems to be assuming you are an undergraduate.

Googling "childcare working tax credit postgraduate student" brings up other university webpages, it seems that the access to learning fund at your DH's univerisity is the most likely source of help.

thank you that is very helpful!

we'd been turned away at the uni before but it may well have been someone that just couldn't be bothered so i shall persevere with this info in mind

i've had a wee look at the link you sent and it looks promising so we'll have to have a go at this, thanks so much :A

june1970_2

as she is 4yrs old you are entitled to free playgroup or nusery sessions,