Childcare, odd situation help needed please

HOLsale

i've posted this on the students board but i think that there may be more people with kids and studying on here so here it is again

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 ) 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

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

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 ) 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

Spendless

Hi- you say shes 4. There is non-means tested funding (available to all) for a child the term after their 3rd birthday, upto 2.5 hours per session 5 times a week. 12.5 hours in total. Are you already claiming this?

The other thing is to look to see if your employer offers childcare vouchers. You can salary sacrifice (give up) upto £50 a week in return for vouchers which are tax and NI exempt. Unfortunately they may have an effect on your working tax credit, so you do need to be careful and thoroughly look into it.

When does she start full-time school?

HOLsale

Spendless wrote:

Hi- you say shes 4. There is non-means tested funding (available to all) for a child the term after their 3rd birthday, upto 2.5 hours per session 5 times a week. 12.5 hours in total. Are you already claiming this?

The other thing is to look to see if your employer offers childcare vouchers. You can salary sacrifice (give up) upto £50 a week in return for vouchers which are tax and NI exempt. Unfortunately they may have an effect on your working tax credit, so you do need to be careful and thoroughly look into it.

When does she start full-time school?

she already gets that and it goes straight to the nursery towards our arrears, unfortunately though it's pathetic amount only £409/term for 5 full days because she's now only 2 days it has dropped to £167 they will NOT allow you to squeeze all the hours together (they pay for 2.5 hour sessions up to 5 per week) and the amounts they give you only cover what they would allow for COUNCIL nurseries which are like hens teeth. i'd pay more in travel costs too as i live right down the road fromt the nursery we're at

we were paying £346/month for 5 half days sessions now we're down to 2 which is a big compromise on their part so it's now £125/month plus the extra £100 back payment. because she is less days this term the £409 that was going to go to our arrears is now only £167 so we're really taking a beating :eek: the nursery we're at (and all the other locals, i checked) will not allow you to come for just the 2.5 hours per day the council covers, you MUST come at least a half day

I'm self employed, i can't get any vouchers :-(

HOLsale

she starts school full time in august

that will be a bit better though on fridays they let out at 12:10 :eek:

that's EVERY friday! weird!

Spendless

oh dear. In my area some mums and tots groups, also have playgroups (pre-school) attached to them, which are only open for 2.5 hours per day,making it free. Have you checked to see if this is the case where you are? That would give you 2.5hours free each day, but wouldn't help you with the nursery arrears,nor give you much time to get the work done.

You can also use the funding you are getting with an accredited childminder. Is it worth enquiring if there is any in your area? Could family help you out?

I hope you sort it and can manage till Aug when she's in full-time school. They finish early every Friday . All the school or just her year. What's the reason?

HOLsale

Spendless wrote:

oh dear. In my area some mums and tots groups, also have playgroups (pre-school) attached to them, which are only open for 2.5 hours per day,making it free. Have you checked to see if this is the case where you are? That would give you 2.5hours free each day, but wouldn't help you with the nursery arrears,nor give you much time to get the work done.

You can also use the funding you are getting with an accredited childminder. Is it worth enquiring if there is any in your area? Could family help you out?

I hope you sort it and can manage till Aug when she's in full-time school. They finish early every Friday . All the school or just her year. What's the reason?

childminders are so expensive in our area,especially the ones nearby (that even make the 2.5 hours a day feasible, has to be in quick walking distance..no car) because we live in an affluent neighbourhood. we live in uni family housing so we're poor but 'appear' well off because of the neighbourhood. it's something i had considered but it won't work :-(

as for the early fridays, it's every friday, all year for all students... don't know what's up with that but i'm grateful that we have the flexibility to be able to cope with it. they don't even have an afterschool programme so i have no idea how most people manage as i know few people that could work the 8.50am to 2.47pm (yes that's right 2.47 ) schedule!

that will be better though as it's only a 5-10 minute walk there and back... i guess i just won't get a lot of work done on fridays until i feel she's old enough to play outside unsupervised (i don't trust the kids here to keep her out of trouble sad to say)

i wish i could even go part time as a student and have that count but you have to be full time and i just can't do everything!

Spendless

HOLsale wrote:

i wish i could even go part time as a student and have that count but you have to be full time and i just can't do everything!

How many hours do you have to do to be considered a full-time student?

HOLsale

60credits per semester BUT that's a moot point as i am 35 and haven't been in uni since i was 22 (went part time) so they insist i have to take access course which wouldn't count as me being a full time student...and we can't afford to pay for them anyway

they really have us over a barrel here and it's all down to the fact that they didn't stop to think that some people may have a family member that is a full time student so he/she can work towards a better paying job! it's not like mature students are rare anymore

dh has won AHRC funding only 1 out of every 10 applicants receives the funding... they are priming for people who will go on to do ph.d's (and further funding) and then become leaders in their fields, that is why they are so picky about who gets the funding... dh's intention is to become a professor of linguistics at Edinburgh University so this study he is doing actually contributes to the greater good for everyone not just us... it's an incredibly unfair system which i can't do anything about, i just wish i could find some sort of grant or something that would help us out :-(

i do apppreciate everyone's attempts to help, thank you

mummytofour

Sorry I have not read all the posts here, but can dh not claim the childcare grant for students????? there are some links here //www.dfes.gov.uk/studentsupport/students/lon_lone_parents.shtml

Also is there childcare on campas at a discounted rate?


HTH
Vxx

Karnam

childcare grant, like the student loan, is for undergraduates only......

im applying for it and i know i get it but im an undergraduate

Spendless

If getting help for childcare is out .Can you do some of your work when she's in bed? Are you able to reduce your hours so you can work when she's at nursery?