Not sure if wife is better off giving up work - after baby

Driven_mad

We are discussing the possibility of trying for a baby. My wife brings home a fairly good wage but I am the main earner.

I have doubts that we could afford for my wife to stop work altogether. Childcare is v expensive and my parents cant help as they work.

I heard someone mention the other day that one option would be for my wife to give up work to look after the baby and the government would make up any shortfall so we would not be any worse off. I find this really hard to believe.

Can anyone tell me what options we could have please.

samcantcope

Thats news to me, I gave up work 18 months ago, that was when I had my 2nd child, I have a 3 yr old and 18 month old, all we get is 40 per month child tax credit and 117 per month family allowance.

we manage just about, I do miss work sometimes for my sanity and adult company.

Good luck with whichever you decide to do, :beer:

Counting_Pennies_2

I think you are probably talking about child tax credits.

But that wouldn't be making up a shortfall, that is just an additional payment based on your earnings, if youdo a search on child tax credits it would inform you of what you are likely to be entitled to, although beware, it is a paperwork nightmare, and for us it really wasn't worth the hassle for such a small amount.

We found it better me going back to work on a very part-time basis and having a good friend be the childminder (she had intended to do this as her business and trained officially to do this before we decided to have her care for our son) most companies offer childcare vouchers via the payroll system, which basically allows you to purchase childcare vouchers to pay your childcarer, and this is done before you deductions are made from your salary, so saving a significant sum on the cost of childcare. It is also possible to do on both your earnings, so that is worth looking into also. You will no doubt find a policy from HR on it.

hth

Driven_mad

Ok great thanks very much for the advice.

MoaningMyrtle

We get the £117.00 child benefit, £40.00 child tax credit and that's it. You can get help towards paid childcare, I'm not sure what the entitlement is.

How about getting a part-time job in the evenings or at the weekend? that way childcare would be free.

asandwhen

try https://www.entitledto.co.uk

wendym

My daughter in London didn't go back to work, as she wanted to have a second child fairly quickly, and with childcare x 2 it was not financially worth going back, and in fact borderline with one.

The women she met while pregnant all went back to work, but with the exception of one high-flyer, they all just break even.

Justie

you need to weigh up the benefits of having two of you working (your OH may want to return to work) and the long term impact on earnings once your OH is out of the workplace for a number of years along side the short term costs of childcare etc. There are lots of potential benefits to the child of having one parent stay at home for as long as possible as well.

The best advice is to live now as though you're already in a position of paying childcare or living off one wage or 1 1/2 wages. Save the rest and then you'll have a cushion to see you through the first patch and then you can decide. Maternity leave is now longer but depending on the company may only be a small amount of money for most of it this may be long enough to see how it goes though...

Childcare can be mostly offset by child tax credits and if either or both of you can get childcare vouchers from work so you may have more options than you thought.

Kimitatsu

If you ring your local CAB they will do a quick benefits check and give you a "better off" calculation.

At least that way you would have an idea. Of course this is only until the next budget or general election whichever comes first :rolleyes:

All of the points above are good points, childcare is expensive and dependant on your wage there may be little available to you in child tax credits. But also if your OH is used to working it may be worth her going back just for her sanity.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

halia

Its so individual based on incomes, nursery fees in your area etc. All I can give you is some idea of our situation, I earn less than DH and as I'm p/t I earn EVEN less.
We agreed that having two parents working f/t wasn't how we wanted to run our family once DS was born - we knew that would mena very long childcare hours and no flexibility - lucky we made that choice as it turns out because DS has special needs.

We've ended up with me working 2-3 days in paid work and retraining as a teacher which takes up 1-2 days (p/t study). Next year I move onto the PGCE f/t and get a bursary so can afford to drop my paid job.

My salary covers the 4 days of nursery I need for both work and study, due to OH income we dont' get alot of Working fmaileis tax credit but if he earnt less we would get a top up. It is dependant on BOTH of you working 16hrs+ though.

Nursery fees for 4 days (7am - 6pm, 3 meals a day) costs us £112 a week, both OH and me can claim childcare vouchers which come out of our salary before tax which saves us about £20 a week. (btw DS goes 8am - 5pm but you pay for a full day not the hours)
A childminder might be a chepaer option if nurseries are expensive nr you, they usually charge between £2.50 and £4 an hr in the north at least.

My recomendation for your wife would be to EITHER go back to work at 4 months p/t - that way baby settles into nursery early on and very easily.
OR, go back after a year, most poeple end up going back to work after the 6 months mat leave and it coincides with baby starting to get seperation anxiety and a whole host of new developmental stuff.

At 2 alot of nursery fees drop slightly, ours went down by 50p a day! then at 3 and a bit (the term after third birthday) you get 12 hrs free childcare which would reduce our weekly bill to about £70-£80.

Think about flexibility and back up though, the biggest difficulty we found was when littli was ill (which happened alot) we just didn't have any flexibility built in via GParents etc. If you can - MOVE, I never thought I would want to mvoe to be nr my parents, but I can completly see why people do it now. All our freinds work and we just dont' have that network of people to help out.

Personally if I could do it over again I wouldn't! children are VERY expensive! but really, i'd still go back to work but negotiate a better package for my return (I was made redundant when DS was 18 months old). I'd push for OH to negotiate a 4 day week as well.

Apart from the fact that I'm just not suited to it the biggest difficulty of being a SAHP is the fact that you don't get sickpay or holiday time. I will always remember the terrifying week when I collapsed on the floor, I was at home f/t for 2 months after redudancy so DS wasn't in childcare. I came round to find a frightened toddler sitting next to me patting my head trying to get mummy to wake up. Then I had a week where the GP said I 'had' to rest or I would collapse agan, but I had no option but to get up. No-one pays you sick pay if you are a mum, the baby still needs to be looked after. In the end OH had to take unpaid time from work to look after DS.

So save up your holidays so you can use them for that type of emergancy!

pollyanna24

Must admit, I get a bit worried when I think about things like this. I feel I have no choice but to wait 5 or so years and hope we are in a better position.

My mum has said she will look after kids once she can give up work and she has paid off her debt (she has one of those PayPlan things), but me and bf have no pension and our contracts are so basic, we have no cover for anything!