Going back to uni - financial help?

karenx

You won't get any help towards childcare via tax credits

Caz3121

there won't be any benefits apart from child benefit (income too high for tax credits)
Now you have posted the funding I think your only option would be part time work or finding a way to reduce the childcare costs

Credit-Crunched

You are intentionally making yourself unemployed from a well paid job because you want to change your career to something different. Then you turn to the system to foot the bill whilst you are studying?!! My o my, you will fit right in with the teachers I know, not one of them lives in the real world!!

Spendless

Can your husband claim childcare vouchers via his employer? That would reduce the child care costs a little bit. I don't know anything about bursaries but do you have to use them on tuition fees? Or can you take out a student loan for the fees, so that you are only paying it back when you are earning enough and use the bursary for the childcare fees instead? I assume it's too last minute for you to save the £6k shortfall from your wages?

Naf

Credit-Crunched wrote: »

You are intentionally making yourself unemployed from a well paid job because you want to change your career to something different. Then you turn to the system to foot the bill whilst you are studying?!! My o my, you will fit right in with the teachers I know, not one of them lives in the real world!!

The OP clearly says that they are about to "have to" leave their job. While no reason is given, or required, it doesn't sound like a trivial choice to leave to me.

pinkshoes

Credit-Crunched wrote: »

You are intentionally making yourself unemployed from a well paid job because you want to change your career to something different. Then you turn to the system to foot the bill whilst you are studying?!! My o my, you will fit right in with the teachers I know, not one of them lives in the real world!!

It's usually best to ask questions for clarification rather than making rather rude assumptions!

As someone who DOES read more carefully pointed out, my post said that I might HAVE to leave my job, so very different to making myself intentionally jobless!

I work part time, and my work are about to give me 1 months notice to revert to full time, as they've taken on more work than the office can cope with at the moment. I cannot get additional days at my nursery until at least September, no other local nurseries can cover my long days, and no childminders have a vacancy for a 18 month old, and no family who can look after him, so once they issue the notice to revert to full time, I will have no choice but to quit, as I can hardly take my son to work with me 2 days a week!

On top of that, I don't think it's fair on my son to put him in nursery for 10 hours a day, 5 days a week!

So, to prevent myself being unemployed and sponging off the state, I made the decision to re-train.

Thanks to all the sensible posts!

My OH does already claim the full amount of childcare vouchers, and the £9k for the nursery place is already the cheaper option, as I'm going to change him to one that does term time contracts, and generally cheaper than our current one.

Might see about getting a few hours work on a saturday, but I'll be using my evenings once my son is in bed to study, cook, clean etc...!

Looks like I can possibly get a £500 maintenance grant too, which all helps!

flea72

pinkshoes wrote: »

I work part time, and my work are about to give me 1 months notice to revert to full time, as they've taken on more work than the office can cope with at the moment. I cannot get additional days at my nursery until at least September, no other local nurseries can cover my long days, and no childminders have a vacancy for a 18 month old, and no family who can look after him, so once they issue the notice to revert to full time, I will have no choice but to quit, as I can hardly take my son to work with me 2 days a week

i take it your employers agreed to you going p/t when you returned from mat leave?

if thats the case, they cant force you to quit, they have to make you redundant, if the p/t post is no longer available

F

Dunroamin

pinkshoes wrote: »

Many thanks for all the links! Am just looking through them all whilst my little one sleeps!

My application for a PGCE has been very last minute, so although I'll get a £12k bursary due to my chosen subjects being in demand, it'll only cover the £9k tuition fees and a third of my childcare costs, so I'll need to find some extra money for somewhere.

It would be cheaper in the short term for me to be a housewife, but ultimately, I really enjoy working, and financially we'll be much better off in the long term.

Thanks everyone.

But why are you using the bursary to pay for the fees rather than taking out the fee loan? This seems to be the cause of your financial difficulties.

doodoot

OP, just a word of warning but you should also be actively applying for job vacancies as well as applying for PGCE placements.

There are far fewer places than people applying and it may take you a couple of years or more to finally get on one - this comes from personal experience and from friends.

Also, you will still have to have some form of childcare in place as you will be attending day-time classes at Uni AND you will have a school placement - most student teachers tend to have evening or weekend jobs to supplement their bursary.

rhoda

You should be eligible for discount on your council tax if you are a full time student.

Also you can get a Student Union discount card & a young person's rail card (formerly called a student rail card).