Expecting first baby - childcare costs don't add up

flea72

mitchaa wrote: »

Lets take my £760pm example...

Assuming both sets of parents employers have the voucher scheme in place, the actual cost to the parents is around £610pm. (If both basic rate tax payers)

A low income family will receive 80% of these costs in tax credits so £608 out of the £760 leaving them with £152pm to fork out themselves.

That is a difference of £458pm better off the low income family are over the couple who do not get help. (£610-£152)

That is a massive difference especially if you are on or near the threshold.

£20k income =£1290+£458 tax credit help = £1748
£28k income = £1750, no tax credit help

Or you can work it out the other way £1750-£610 costs = £1140, £1290-£152 costs = £1138

So a couple earning £20k and a couple earning £28k will live exactly the same. Where's the incentive? You could cut your hours significantly to earn the £20k and still have the same disposable income as you were before earning £28k.

What happens to the poor sods in the middle who miss the cut off point, they will be worse off

Its not a fair system in my opinion. If the government should pay 80% costs for 1, they should subsidise 80% costs for everyone. That way, it would get more stay at home parents back into work.

but someone on £20k doesnt necessarily get 80% childcare help, i think in all reality only people who earn under £13k will get anywhere near the 80% childcare help. its all judged on a sliding scale, so someone earning £30K, but paying for triplets to go to nursery full-time might be eligible for 80% too, iyswim.

we have a family income of under £20k, 3 children, and pay childcare fees of £50 a week (on not much overall), however we get no help towards childcare, so wheres the 80% help there?

Flea

zzzLazyDaisy

It is worth pointing out that you cannot have the childcare element of tax credits AND have the vouchers, as that is classed as getting tax relief twice for the same thing. I know this as my daughter-in-law innocently fell foul of this last year

mrcow

giger wrote: »

1/ having no family nearby to support us and for other reasons means she may not cope very well on her own
2/ Whilst I can cover all current household bills out of my wage, I cannot cover the additional bills involved with the baby.

What about her getting a weekend job? It's what I did, I got an admin weekend only job......so my boyfriend looks after the children whilst I'm working. The advantage of this is that:

1. There are no childcare costs unless you want the baby to go to nursery
2. The baby can still go to nursery perhaps 2 x 1/2 days per week to give your wife some time to herself if she isn't coping
3. There will be extra income for your wife to be able to take the baby to groups that can help you going when you are on your own (Gymbabes is £4 odd per week, many parent and baby groups are only £1ish, libraries often do baby activites for free)
4. She still gets some adult time when she's at work at the weekend
5. You'll get some important alone time with the baby that really will help increase confidence and bonding
6. She may even get paid a better hourly rate as it's weekend work (I know I do)

Mips

geri1965 wrote: »

It makes you wonder how people managed in the old days, before there were nurseries and childcare vouchers.

Women weren't expected to work aswell as look after a family

And generally they had about 6 or 7 kids who would look after the smaller ones!

giger

Hi bestpud, thanks for the post. I hope my messages didn't come across the wrong way, it wasn't intended (I know you are referring to someone else's post though) I don't really want my wage to be the prevailing part in this, it isn't that high, it's more than some people and less that some other peoples.
I guess we just presumed we would be 'ok' or that the government would help us out and it has brought us crashing down to earth by seeing how little we would get.

I'm sure we will work something out once we have got over the panic but right now that is what it is!

Houses - well easier said than done. Housing market is very bad now anyway, so chances of selling plus costs involved means it is not worthwhile. Equally, I don't do many miles in my car (public transport is a joke here) so changing that to an older/smaller engine one wouldn't save me day to day running costs, it would just give me a few £ in the bank.

mrcow - there are childcare costs as my fiancee would have to give up work if the nursery option doesn't work out! That is a childcare cost to me!

mrcow

giger wrote: »

mrcow - there are childcare costs as my fiancee would have to give up work if the nursery option doesn't work out! That is a childcare cost to me!

It's not as black and white as that. She can still work when you are not at work to increase income. There are also other ways of generating income with casual work or perhaps she can even start her own business from home.

If you can cover all of your bills with your wage, then you are doing okay for starters. You also need to go through each and every direct debit that you have and cancel anything that isn't essential (Sky was the first thing that we let go, along with our savings scheme, second pensions had to go on hold, charity payments stopped, gym subscriptions were cancelled, insrance policies cancelled or renegotiated). You will also need to cut back on all other expenditure, remortage to get a better deal, stop eating out, start cooking old style and doing shopping lists (I do mine on my supermarket.com and get all my food and household items for £60 per week for 5 of us - including nappies). Cut back on everything and go through the money diet process on the tabs at the tops of this page with everything. And when you've finished, do it again.This is the way that you generate thousands of extra pounds per year to make ends meet.

It's not easy, but parenting is a struggle in so many ways. Your wife may not even want to return to work once the baby comes, many women don't but we all still struggle through in the end.

giger

Appreciate your comments, we already do all of these things though (that is how I can cover all bills with my wage, but have zero left afterwards) - we are very money savvy - except when it comes to babies it seems!

mrcow

.....and by the way, I never said:


:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

CONGRATULATIONS!!

:beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer:

giger

Thankyou :beer:

As mentioned, i've been so worried about money I haven't posted in the right place to share my news! Time to try and take a deep breath and step back to enjoy it :beer:

galvanizersbaby

giger wrote: »

Appreciate your comments, we already do all of these things though (that is how I can cover all bills with my wage, but have zero left afterwards) - we are very money savvy - except when it comes to babies it seems!

Think you soon will be money savvy on the babies front giger!...don't worry you'll get through it
Not sure about the idea of your OH getting a weekend evening job when first baby comes along - to me this would be a bit like working full time 24/7 with a new baby (may work for some admittedly)

1/ having no family nearby to support us and for other reasons means she may not cope very well on her own

Your comment here was the case with me - I did not cope well on my own - I had no transport to get to the various local groups for support/company suggested by HV's and thought I could continue to use public transport but this proved problematic with pram, baby and all the other baby stuff to transport! as a result I became very lonely and felt the need to return to work (so that I could afford to learn to drive for one thing!):rotfl:
What I earned only just covered the nursery fee but it was worth it to keep my job (later on I needed that when hubbie and I parted company)

I know your worried now and want to plan but I think it may be a case of having to wait and see when the time comes