Childcare support questions.

jander

Hello everyone.

My wife is a medical student, and we have a 2 year old child. We are desperately trying to get some help with childcare but it seems that the rules are !!!!!!, to say the least. Once all the basic bills have gone out (mortgage,fuel bills,insurance,council tax,credit cards,travelcards,nursery fees) and the food shopping, we have dipped into our savings for yet another month..
My wife is not able to work due the demanding nature of her degree, and our child, which means I am supporting them both and i am not elligible for the childcare element of working tax credits.

It seems that the only help there is, is geared towards a skewed approach to income, instead of taking a look at outgoings that cannot be deferred or reduced. Can someone give me some advice as to whether I can get *some* kind of help with childcare?

Thank you,

Yiannis

Oldernotwiser

If you're not eligible for the childcare element of WTC this will be because your income is too high. Has your wife taken out all the funding available to her in the way of Student Loans and Grants?

jander

Hello

I thought I was not eligible because my wife is not working, not because my income is too high(low £40k bracket). <rant>At the end of the day it is our basic outgoings that should be taken into account</rant>...My wife only receives the student loan, she was not given any other grant.

Thanks!

Oldernotwiser

jander wrote: »

Hello

I thought I was not eligible because my wife is not working, not because my income is too high(low £40k bracket). <rant>At the end of the day it is our basic outgoings that should be taken into account</rant>...My wife only receives the student loan, she was not given any other grant.

Thanks!

She won't have been eligible for a Maintenance Grant because your income is too high. Extra help is always going to be means tested and high earners won't be able to claim anything. Seems a fair system to me!

Aspiring

jander wrote: »

Hello

I thought I was not eligible because my wife is not working, not because my income is too high(low £40k bracket). <rant>At the end of the day it is our basic outgoings that should be taken into account</rant>...My wife only receives the student loan, she was not given any other grant.

Thanks!

She could claim a maintenance loan, though. Ok, it's not a grant, but if she falls out of the scale of eligability for a grant, she can resort to the maintenance loan.

She could also look into the Access to Learning Fund (see this thread: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=179491 )

welf_man

You need to apply for WTC to check whether you are eligible or not, andmake sure that your wife did actually apply for the Child Care Grant and Parent's Learning Allowance. Has she consulted a University Money Adviser?

Mel.

redmel1621

Hi - You are right jander, you can't claim childcare element of tax credits because only you are 'working'. The rules are both parents have to be employed 16hrs or more to qualify.

As said above though, there is a maintanance loan, parent learning allowance, and dependant adult grant...all of these are means tested, but she should check that she applied for them anyway on the off chance you may be entitled.

The University also do offer childcare grant, but, again, it is means tested..

I think she needs to go to speak with a student finance advisor at the university, with all the figures of income and childcare costs etc and get them to check what she has and hasn't applied for. Also what she could/should have applied for.

Mel x

Edit - Having just re-read through.....To be honest it is probably likely you won't actually qualify for anything additional as you are on quite a high income. My dh is full time at Uni and gets every loan/grant going...that along with my wages and tax credits....still doesn't put us anywhere near 40k. I think maybe you need to reassess your outgoing if you are struggling!!

Taiko

To qualify you for PLA/Childcare, your allowable outgoings would have to reduce the net income considerably. The ones allowed include:

- Mortgage Payments
- Rent payments
- Life/Medical Insurance
- Buildings/Contents Insurance

There are some other bits that can be taken into account, and I've a spreadsheet that I could possibly upload for you to maybe use to determine eligibility.

jander

redmel1621 wrote: »

Hi - You are right jander, you can't claim childcare element of tax credits because only you are 'working'. The rules are both parents have to be employed 16hrs or more to qualify.

As said above though, there is a maintanance loan, parent learning allowance, and dependant adult grant...all of these are means tested, but she should check that she applied for them anyway on the off chance you may be entitled.

The University also do offer childcare grant, but, again, it is means tested..

I think she needs to go to speak with a student finance advisor at the university, with all the figures of income and childcare costs etc and get them to check what she has and hasn't applied for. Also what she could/should have applied for.

Mel x

Edit - Having just re-read through.....To be honest it is probably likely you won't actually qualify for anything additional as you are on quite a high income. My dh is full time at Uni and gets every loan/grant going...that along with my wages and tax credits....still doesn't put us anywhere near 40k. I think maybe you need to reassess your outgoing if you are struggling!!

I thought my outgoings where crazy but once I sat down and wrote everything down, between mortgage,nursery fees, fuel bills, council tax, credit cards,various utilities and the food budget I am left with nill at the end of the month. Nursery costs nearly a grand a month, which tears a huge chunk into my salary...

jander

Taiko wrote: »

To qualify you for PLA/Childcare, your allowable outgoings would have to reduce the net income considerably. The ones allowed include:

- Mortgage Payments
- Rent payments
- Life/Medical Insurance
- Buildings/Contents Insurance

There are some other bits that can be taken into account, and I've a spreadsheet that I could possibly upload for you to maybe use to determine eligibility.

That would be massively appreciated..

morg_monster

hm i guess that is your problem, usually when only 1 out of 2 parents is working you don't need nursery fees as well. difficult situation. Only thing i can think of as well as the advice from other posters, is that once your child is 3 you get 12.5 hrs free nursery care a week (going up to 15 in 2010) http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Preschooldevelopmentandlearning/NurseriesPlaygroupsReceptionClasses/DG_10016103

when is he/she 3? that'll save you a reasonable chunk when that comes around.
erm another related thing - does your employer offer a childcare voucher scheme? if it does and you aren't already on it you should get on it to save a bit there, if it isn't offered, maybe you can ask them to consider it.

Also i presume you are getting single person discount of 25% on your council tax since your wife is a student? Again i know it isn't a huge difference but when you are at 0 anything extra is an improvement!

you might find more help on the debt-free wannabe board once you have clarified the benefits situation.