Full Time or Part Time

MrsJT_2

Morning All,

I'm in a catch 22 at the moment, I gave birth to my dauther March 2012 and had 9 months maternity leave plus my 5 weeks holiday which took me to the end of December, I was supposed to return to work January but my mom became very ill and passed away on the 12th January. I'm now starting to pull myself together and with the help of family we have managed to get by paying the bills this month as I haven't had an income since the end of December.

I will not be returning to my current position as it is an 80 mile round trip each day and with petrol costs on top of full time childcare costs I'll be working for about £150 per month which will nowhere near cover our bills.

My prediciment now is will I be better off working part time and paying part time childcare or full time and full time childcare? I've being trying to workout what kind of income I would have less childcare and either way the most I have to take home is £300 which still isn't enough we need £7/800 per month after childcare to pay our bills.

I've looked at evening work but there isn't any local to me, I've tried supermarkets and they have no positions available, my husband is contracted to work Saturdays so even if I find something working a weekend I will still have to pay childcare as we now have no family that would be able to help with the childcare.

My husband's income is £19k per year before deductions, £2080 of his take home wage has to pay as child maintenance but this isn't taken into consideration with the goverment when your looking at what help they will offer.

Does anyone know what I'd be better off doing as I'm beginning to lose the will here I have enough on my plate with loosing my mom this is something I really don't need there doesn't seem to be a way to get by either way I either pay for someone else to look after my daughter and be £4/500 a month short on what we need or not return to work not have to pay childcare but not have an income at all.

Has anyone else been in this situation and found something that works?

Any help appreciated beginning to get really depressed with it all now :mad:

michaelaeloise

Hi MrsJT

Sorry to hear about your mam, that must have been hurrendous for you, i hope you are managing ok.

Im in a very similar situation to you, had baby in feb last year, due to return back to work next week. Me and my husband sat for ages going though all the scenarios and found that for us the part time option worked best as we also have no one nearby to rely on to help out and i wouldnt pay as much tax as you do full time so would work out better. The only problem is my employer cant offer me pt work so going back full time. Did you know that most employers can offer you the government childcare vouchers to help towards costs? both you and your employer can get them and you can each buy a max of £243 a month which willl save you about £70 each, i know its not much but it helps, its always worth asking employers about this. Nurseries are so expensive and i can understand why mothers sometimes dont bother going back to work. Its horrible to think that we are going to work for a small amount of money for someone else to bring up our kids, good luck in deciding what to do x