Free 15hrs childcare

tokenfield

princessdon wrote: »

Wow all that money for private education etc and you have no money left to support you in the later years of your life

Your names not andy is it?

I have arranged our affairs in such a way that I do have access to a considerable amount of capital but for means tested purposes the capital that is elsewhere is kept just under the £10,000 figure.

Instead of putting our savings into bank accounts which I knew would cause problems when claiming Pension Credit as well as affecting what the council will seek to include should either of us need help in our old age, we moved home quite a few times over a period of 15 years, stretching our resources each time that by the time I retired at 60, we live in a mortgage free property worth in excess of £750,000. That is our capital reserve.

So no we haven't spent it all, we have been rather canny in keeping it away from the those that would like to treat it as available capital which we should live off.

At sometime in the near future I will inherit from my family approx. £480,000 which will mean another home move so that it is used entirely to help buy our final principal private residence of approx. £1.25m. (they can't consider deprivation of the inherited capital if it used to buy your only home).

You could describe us as others do - asset rich, cash poor.

Andy? No, not me, why do you ask?

tokenfield

shedboy94 wrote: »

£10 for 15hrs work..........how does that work then?

I don't, the Pension Service does when it assessed our income.

Of the £90 net a week that I declare, they deduct £80 from my Pension Credit as other income. So effectively I work 15 hours for £10 - not really fair is it? I'm only £10 a week better off than if I had sat at home watching Jeremy Kyle every day and didn't work.

plum2002

tokenfield wrote: »

I have arranged our affairs in such a way that I do have access to a considerable amount of capital but for means tested purposes the capital that is elsewhere is kept just under the £10,000 figure.

Instead of putting our savings into bank accounts which I knew would cause problems when claiming Pension Credit as well as affecting what the council will seek to include should either of us need help in our old age, we moved home quite a few times over a period of 15 years, stretching our resources each time that by the time I retired at 60, we live in a mortgage free property worth in excess of £750,000. That is our capital reserve.

So no we haven't spent it all, we have been rather canny in keeping it away from the those that would like to treat it as available capital which we should live off.

At sometime in the near future I will inherit from my family approx. £480,000 which will mean another home move so that it is used entirely to help buy our final principal private residence of approx. £1.25m. (they can't consider deprivation of the inherited capital if it used to buy your only home).

You could describe us as others do - asset rich, cash poor.

Andy? No, not me, why do you ask?

and you begrudge a young family claiming a bit of CWTC!! pots and kettles..........

tokenfield

plum2002 wrote: »

and you begrudge a young family claiming a bit of CWTC!! pots and kettles..........

errrr yes I do if I am helping to pay for it!

It's a bit rich that after funding the schooling of my two children and then my grandchildren - saving the state money in the process, I am then given no choice in having the tax I pay, and also ignoring the fact that every week I save the state another £80 in reduced benefits because I continue to work used to help to provide child care for the rest of society's sprogs!

Charity starts and finishes at home! I don't suppose that the state would reimburse the fees that I have paid instead of my children claiming Child Tax Credit for their children (my grandchildren)?

plum2002

tokenfield wrote: »

errrr yes I do if I am helping to pay for it!

It's a bit rich that after funding the schooling of my two children and then my grandchildren - saving the state money in the process, I am then given no choice in having the tax I pay used to help to provide child care for the rest of society's sprogs!

well maybe i resent paying for your pension credit when by your own admission you are putting your money out of reach for benefits purposes, and intend to do it again when you inherit wealth.

Troutwrestler

princessdon wrote: »

Yes I was referring to token field as was the other poster - reading is my strong point, though not yours. Unless you are both the same person?

princessdon wrote: »

Actually it does appear I clicked on wrong user name, so mixed up their posts that they afford private education with yours - a genuine error. When I make a mistake I say so and apologise.

Well I won't hold my breath for an apology. Nor would I want one.

My point still stands. Eejit

hueygeorge

I say go for it if you are entitled to it. Being a Mam is hard especially if you don't get any help from family. I am lucky in that I get help from my family - they don't have much choice really as we currently live with them! Thats another story though.....
I currently work f/t and so I am paying towards the 15 hours free childcare - couldn't care-less - its the governments decision after all and its not likely to change anytime soon. Plus they currently give me 70% off my nursery fees - if they didn't it would not be worth me working - nursery costs £656 per month and I only get £1,120 per month - do the maths.
As for people claiming benefits and not thinking before they had children - I completely believed my ex - F**kwit that he is, when he said he loved me and wanted kids etc. We then had our beautiful daughter who is now 28 months old and I found out in Feb 2013 that he was an alcoholic - he still happily claims ESA though claiming that he is 'depressed', the only thing that is wrong with him is that he has no back-bone and is a sponger. If anyone has the right to be depressed its me - working f/t to provide for our daughter - by myself, currently living with parents until I find a place of our own etc,, its never pleasant to be thrown out of your home just because you aren't on the council tenancy - silly me! He also now wants nothing to do with out daughter - STRESS!
Anyway, rant over - sorry!

Love_the_minions

Wow didn't realise what a huge and emotional response my post would get. I can completely understand people's resentment to the WTC system, the same way I resent people I went to school with never having worked a day in their life and managing to play the system to their advantage. I've had a long think about it over the weekend an like others have said hmrc doesn't actually have any rules about this, they must know it goes on so if they wanted to ban it they could close the loophole. Whilst the loophole is there of course people are going to take advantage of it to their benefit. Same as you are with the pension credit system tokenfield.

The way I see it is that since I returned to work 2 years ago I have been working 2 days a week, my boss wanted me to split my hours over 4 days but due to the way the nursery day works this would have meant me having to pay for 4 full days in nursery for my little girl at a cost of £160 a week. Instead I convinced him to let me do two days and I would be available on the phone in case of any queries, this meant I kept my nursery costs as low as possible for the past two years. I could have very easily cost the taxpayer 70% of £160 till she starts school at 5 but I didn't so I think I'm fair in going ahead will my plan for 18 months from January.

Thanks to all the posters who had actual advice to offer. I have already been to see the preschool in question and they have no problem with me splitting the hours over 3 days.

SHIRAZ

Love_the_minions wrote: »

Thanks to all the posters who had actual advice to offer. I have already been to see the preschool in question and they have no problem with me splitting the hours over 3 days.

Haven't the local authority places been on holiday since last Tuesday/Wednesday?

Love_the_minions

SHIRAZ wrote: »

Haven't the local authority places been on holiday since last Tuesday/Wednesday?

Because our local school runs a play scheme in some of the holiday the preschool is open 44 weeks of the year to tie in with that, they don't close till 31st July.