Have your say on childcare and school/nursery fees

marblecake

pinkshoes wrote: »

I'm a teacher and earn £10,500 after tax for working 2 days a week.

For childcare I pay £93/day (1 year old twins and a child at school).

£93 x 2 days x 39 weeks = £7254
Petrol = £300/year

Take home pay = £10500 - (£7254 + £300) = £2946/year!!!!

That is £56/week.

I dread the childcare inflation rise.

If I worked a third day my take home pay would go DOWN as I would pay tax on the full amount earned which would make it less than my childcare bill!

Surely you would only pay tax on what you earn over the personal allowance (£11.5k tax free) rather than the whole amount? Therefore your takehome pay would not go down if you took on an extra day.

Spendless

marblecake wrote: »

Surely you would only pay tax on what you earn over the personal allowance (£11.5k tax free) rather than the whole amount? Therefore your takehome pay would not go down if you took on an extra day.

I think what pinkshoes means is the ratio doesn't work out.

For example someone earning £12.50 per hour working an 8 hour day for 2 days per week takes home £194.84 divide that by 2 for the day rate and you're earning £97.42 a day, you don't pay tax just a little bit of NI.

Up your days to 3 days a week. You'd be working a 24 hour week @£12.50 per hour and taking home £267.07 divide by 3 and your daily rate is now £89.02, less than when you worked 2 days but your expenses are now for 3 days worth of childcare not 2.

Figures from here

https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/hourly.php

sulphate

We pay £314 a month for 1 day a week in nursery. 1 child. Cambridgeshire. It's expensive compared to other nurseries but it was the only one that we were happy with/was good for us location wise/had space. I get childcare vouchers which makes it more manageable and next April the 15 hours will kick in (nursery can't offer 30 hours). We are so lucky that my mum has him for the other 2 days a week that I work.

pinkshoes

marblecake wrote: »

Surely you would only pay tax on what you earn over the personal allowance (£11.5k tax free) rather than the whole amount? Therefore your takehome pay would not go down if you took on an extra day.

Two days a week is approximately £12k, so already just over the personal allowance.

A third day would mean that the extra amount of £6k would have 20% tax deducted, pension, national insurance, and then the student loan repayment would also kick in, meaning that what I would earn on that third day would not cover my childcare bill for the extra day.

haras_nosirrah

I am so lucky that I have grandparent help and a flexible employer
i work 42 hours but my hours are spread in such a way that childcare is manageable

mon - 6pm - 9pm. hubby has kids
tue - 8am - 6pm - 1 at school and 1 with grandparents
wed - 6pm - 9pm hubby has kids
thur 8am - 6pm 1 at school and 1 with other set of grandparents
fri - 8am - 1pm and 6pm - 9pm. 1 at school and 1 in nursery
sat 8am - 5pm both with hubby.

we pay just under £200 a month for the 1 morning at nursery and 2 days after school club for the oldest.

2 kids - south east

ViolaLass

1. We used to spend the full vouchers amount plus £160 a month for two days a week. Now she's 3, she does 3 days a week for £6 per week! We both work part-time so she has a day with each of us to complete the week.

2. What other option is there other than budgeting for it? We didn't worry unduly about the cost for the first two years though. I needed to go back to work for my sanity as did my husband and we knew it wouldn't be forever. I try to make decisions that I'll be happy with on my deathbed.

3. I want those who look after my children to receive an income that is commensurate with the skills and patience they have to show.

We're in the Midlands with one child. We're lucky that we set up home in a relatively cheap part of the world.

onlyroz

My 8-year-old daughter goes to the after school club 3 days a week at a cost of £9.25 per session, so about £1082 a year (based on 39 weeks at school).

The holiday club is £19 a day. She tends to go for 3 days per week of school holiday, with my mum taking her for the other two. So this is £456 based on 8 weeks holiday (I get 5 weeks annual leave a year).

I pay for the above with childcare vouchers - I claim £125 a month in vouchers. I also have protected rights for the vouchers because I have been claiming them since before the April 2011 cut off.

My childcare costs have halved since my son started secondary school - he is now in year 8 and has to fend for himself after school and during the holidays, because there is zero provision for secondary aged children.

For other activities, I pay the following for my daughter:
- £90 a term for swimming lessons
- £50 a term for gymnastics lessons
- £40 a term for cheerleading lessons
Total £540

I also pay for both kids to go on a PGL holiday once a year. This tends to cost around £600 (they usually offer buy-one-get-one-free deals once you've been a few times).

So total costs are around £2700. This is a drop in the ocean compared to when the kids were in nursery - back then I was paying around £1000 a month per child.

Wobblydeb

Nursery fees are £8,136 per annum for 3 days a week over 50 weeks per year. We pay for it using a combination of childcare vouchers and cash. Against that we receive back £4,845 under the government's 30 hours free childcare scheme.

The other 2 days are covered by me working a 4 day week, and grandparents looking after our toddler 1 day per week. Family and friends do our babysitting so no other childcare costs.

We are lucky to be in 2 professional jobs, so the cash element doesn't eat into our cash in hand too much. It is easy to budget for, as the amount is fixed every month (other than annual increases).

The crazy thing for me is that the government helps for the first 9 months with maternity pay, and then again once your child reaches 3 years old - but leaves a huge gap between those two ages :huh: We could afford to pay for a nursery from the end of maternity leave but what about those on minimum wage jobs or not working but would like to? Help really should be available to anyone working, but only up to something like average UK salary - not £100k!

We are getting nearly £5,000 per year cash from government when we were able to afford the fees already. It seems like madness.

ke1009

Our nursery south of Edinburgh is £41 per day and my husband and I both take childcare vouchers from our salaries at £174.25 each per month. This is ok for us because we're both working part-time but the voucher limit wouldn't cover a full week. Our childcare bill would be hell. I've just gone back to work after a year's maternity leave so had been living off savings for a while and this gap until my child is 3 seems huge. I don't feel like we're helped enough in these two years. We've cut every bill to be able to work part-time and take on the new childcare bill. It's handy that we don't go out much with a young child so that saves a lot.

Bangton

It was £900 ish a month for a full time place but that has now dropped below £200 as we get 30hrs free since September and I've dropped a day a week from work. To be honest £200 feels like a total steal considering he gets his meals provided and does loads of activities/has a blast. I love my childcare provider so much. .. we live in Yorkshire.
£900 was steep and despite earning a decent wage if ever my son or I were sick meaning no work I'd lose income and find the costs harder to cover. I. haven't cut back as such but also have no savings which is worrying but hope to catch up a bit now the costs are dramatically different ��