Debt, working and child care....advice

in-trouble_3

hiya all,

not sure if this is the right place to discuss this, but i am doing everything possible to clear out debt off, will be signing up with cccs, which our monthly payment will be £595 and i have found myself a job, which i start next month, roughly monthly pay will be £528 before tax and all that, then after that i will have child care costs, since my daughter is now in full time school, it will be £52 a month when she is at school but when she is off it will be £288 a month, so easter holidays, 7 weeks holidays, christmas holidays, do you think its really worth it going back to work?

dont get me wrong i really do want to go back to work, i have been looking forward to this for a very long time, but its the child care costs.

thanks

Broken_hearted

Yes in long run you will be better off and your daughter will have the work ethic.

steve700

At the worst time, you'll still be over £140 up, after tax, won't you?

It's got to be worth it, to get back in the game and work towards those payrises.

Steve

in-trouble_3

thank you for your replies, i was going to start the job anyway, i only work 4 days a week 10am to 4pm which isnt bad.

themaccas

I would definately recommend going to work too. Ask your employer if they do childcare vouchers, you can get £220 worth of vouchers a month and you don't pay any tax on them. If they say 'no', have a look at BusyBees voucher system, it is really easy for an employer to sign up to them and doesn't cost them anything.

hugs

raq

Agree with most of these posts, but it's down to yourself so have a good think about it. I have just finished work and have worked for 20 years without a break . ( had another baby ). I love work but my finances at just an extra £20.00 a week to break my back isn't worth it. Just down to individual circumstances.

Good luck

lynzpower

I think it is worth it.

Have you looked at
a) tax credits
b) any incentives for you getting back to work - if youve been on benefits of any sort then you might be entitled to a week or 2s free travel, work clothes or something like that along with run-off
c) there might be overtime that later you can slot in
d) if i offered you 120 pcm it would be worth taking- wouldnt it?
e) your employability in general would be better as you are back in the rat race. you might get a better job off the back of this down the line.
f) as someone esle said, childcare vouchers should be available

the other alternative would be to look for a job where childcare isnt an issue for example evenings & weekends where your "net" might be more.

KatrinaC_2

Going back to work is a decision only you can make. I had to go back full time 6 weeks after my son was born and it killed me at the time but after a period of unemployment I realised how much happier I was when I had "grown-up" time.

Make sure that if you do go back that you apply for Working Families Tax Credit, Child Care Tax Credit and all of the other credits you get for being employed. And don't assume that you'll get nothing or that you'll only get the term time based amount for your childcare - you can get it so that your total costs for the period of your award are averaged over the length of the award. That way you can "bank" a bit extra during the cheap periods so that the holidays are much less daunting.

Also, ask your employer about Childcare vouchers - they save you money and they are an ideal way to save up for the cost of school holiday childcare as you cannot spend them anywhere else when times get a bit tight.

Kat

cannyscot_2

Your biggest childcare expense is in the holidays. In our area for the hours you work 10-4 you can often get holiday classes that cost virtually nothing max £25 a week. plus there are private organisations who run sports courses in our area wuth funding which only charge £25 a week sometimes they are even free. There might be an option to reduce cost that way? I have 3 children in a very wide age range so i often think long and hard about how to manage the holidays nad cut costs and usually with a bit of digging i come up with a good solution.

makingendsmeet_2

My wife gave up work to look after our 4 children as we were only £100 a month up and for that amount it just wasn't worth the hassle. One thing I would say we found a problem is when the children are ill and you need time of work. employers can't do anything about it but they just make you life difficult. There are other thing to consider to such as kids sports days,parents evenings, the day they go on a school trip and need pick up earlier or in the winter, we found that there only has to be a sprinkle of snow and the school is closed for the day. Will you employer be flexible on time off?