What are childcare costs like where you live? Do you have a nanny or send your child to a private nursery - do you think what you pay is fair? Do you think the five-free sessions a week should kick in before the age of 3? Have you decided to stay home rather than return to work as childcare costs are so high? Are you lucky enough to have grandparents look after your child while you're at work? Do their services come free or do you pay them? Let us know your views on childcare costs. Also check out our article: How To Manage The Cost Of Childcare

I'm visiting my daughter's new nursery tomorrow. She will be going from January - £30 a day or £125 a week. The creche is a department of work, we have no relatives local to us.

We will be taking advantage of childcare vouchers to the maximum allowable.

im the father of twins, nursery costs are cruminal. i have to pay £46 per day in nursery costs (£230 per week ) i cant afford to keep this up... ( i currently earn £280 per week before tax ) its eating away at my savings and i just cant afford that.

i still need to eat, and keep a roof over my head, and maintain a car to get me to work everyday. its unrealistic to expect me to have to hand over every penny i earn to the nursery

I have looked after my grandson for 3 years now so my daughter could go back to work. I was ill at the time so couldn't work, my daughter couldn't afford the child care costs so I told her I would carry on looking after him.
I am finding it hard to manage now but know she would be in a mess if I went back to work. Its about time grandparents were paid for looking after grandchildren, we go beyond what any child minder would do.

I worked in a nursery for about a year.
I couldn't believe how much the parents had to pay for their children's care.
I don't know where all the money goes because the staff were paid less that £5 an hour and never bought new things for the nursery.
The food was all tesco value and the toys old.
I think it is a rip off and seeing the way some children are treated I would never send my child to a day nursery. I would rather pay a child minder and send them to play school where they get to learn and play and not sent to bed for the day.

i am now a stay at home mom, have paid childcare in the past, about half of my weeks wages went to my provider, but at the time it was all worth it - i needed to work and it was the best thing for my daughter, she loved her provider - always went to work knowing she was well cared for, i believe if you find the right day care provider, money should not be the issue!!
Cutsie_43

I'm confused as to why the parents who are on a low wage or paying up to half their salary to childminders are not able to get 70% of their costs back?

This is the child tax credit, and they pay I think 70% of your costs up to a maximum of £180 (I think again) per child per week.

My childminder took 3/4 of my pay and the govt. 'contributed' £10 per week towards the cost!! My huge salary - £200 / week. We thought they would be paying more towards the cost of childcare and that there were meant to be free childcare places. Probably a London thing. We even appealled because we believed, according to the information in the leaflets about child tax credit, that we were being underpaid, but no.

I suppose it could be because you're in a 2 parent household?

I'm on my own with my 2, and I get nearly £260 per week (combined working & child tax credit). I also get some housing benefit.

Right, either you're getting paid too little or I'm getting paid too much. Hope it's the first option...

quote:

Originally posted by tincat:

I'm on my own with my 2, and I get nearly £260 per week (combined working & child tax credit). I also get some housing benefit.

Hang on a minute. You get 1,100 a month (13k a year) and after tax ? And HB on top? And you will get that for 16 years?

Nothing personal, but all that just for having reproduced?

I know someone who is getting around £200 per week also. Again, on her own with 2 kids.

You only get that sort of level if you are working full time though.

Now to me, shouldn't you throughly research what you can afford before you have a child? Obviously some situations come about unexpectedly, but there's too many people with kids around who don't seem to want to change their lifestyle too much.

My daughter is now in nursery 4 days a week and loves every minute.

Salary sacrifice childcare vouchers save us £160 a month in tax and NI contributions against nursery fees of about £500 a month.

Yes. It sounds a lot, but I only just get by. Rent is £1000 per month and then all the related household bills. I do work full time, so my childcare costs are high. We also live in South West london which I think is more expensive than other areas in childcare.

I suppose it seems like a lot, but I'm going for a better job in the next few months and I have been scrupulously honest with the Tax & Benefits people about what I've been earning, so they will adjust accordingly.

By this time next year I will probably receive a lot less and pay a lot more taxes. Don't begrudge me what I get at the moment or there wouldn't be an incentive for me to aim higher. I could do nothing and still probably manage by claiming more housing benefit and looking after my kids myself.

And by the way, my soon to be ex-husband lives in another country and pays no maintenance. I didn't plan to be a single parent, it just happened, but I am doing my best to move onward and upward for me and my little family.

Anyone else got a problem with that?

quote:

Originally posted by vbland:

quote:

Originally posted by tincat:

I'm on my own with my 2, and I get nearly £260 per week (combined working & child tax credit). I also get some housing benefit.

Hang on a minute. You get 1,100 a month (13k a year) and after tax ? And HB on top? And you will get that for 16 years?

Nothing personal, but all that just for having reproduced?

tincat your situation is precisely why the government brought this in. There was no middle ground before in terms of work or not work, now those of you who have been left high and dry can continue to work full time and as you say, aim to progress.

I can fully understand in a way those who say working isn't worth their while, but then those are the ones who seem to think that good jobs and the salaries that go with them are dropped in your lap.

I don't have children but my view is this... The tax system should make it easier for one parent (whether a single parent or one of a couple) to stay at home until children are about 2 or 3, then encourage that parent to work part time whilst the child attends nursery a few hours a day, then seriously discourage parents from not working once their children start school. I don't think parents should be compelled to go straight back to work after their children are born but at the same time I don't think people should use older children as an excuse to live of state benefits and I do think people should accept that there are certain sacrifices (including financial) that they choose to make by choosing to have children and therefore should not necessarily expect taxpayers to keep them as well of as they would be if working full time and not having children.