“Free childcare”
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Just checking, are you doing the 85% childcare with UC?
I am not sure why you are working at all if all of that goes to nursery? Could you increase your hours? or could family look after the kids while you work?
There is a minimum amount you need to earn weekly to get the fee hours.
@Ellie because I spread the hours across the whole year they were only getting 10hrs at nursery. I don’t get any financial support from their dad to help out. So I’ve only been able to go back for the amount of hours the boys are at nursery. Which was temporary until their hours increased or I was able to save enough to put them in more days
@Frayere I spoke to them and they said to pay it up front and they pay the 85% back on the next pay period but it would leave me with £200 to cover what the boys need and bills
Yeah the first month is harder, but it does work out as then for each month after that you’re only paying a little towards nursery. Completely understand your situation though, it’s tough!
@Ema my sister works and my dad is retired but isn’t in the greatest of health so wouldn’t be fair for him to take care of them. The rest of my family live 2hrs away So I feel like I’m in a catch 22 position
@Frayere I’ve asked UC to give me a call so I can discuss with them as I don’t want the boys to lose out on their development
In some cases they will pay the first month for you, I imagine being on your own with twins they’d hopefully help!
How old are the boys? My daughter didn’t attend nursery until she was 22months and this didn’t affect her negatively at all! Although it was only 1child at the time but I was able to manage working from home with her as I lived at home with my mum who worked every afternoon.
@Frayere hopefully they can offer some help on our call whenever it is
@Ema they turned 1 on the 4th March. I work in retail and when discussing my return I asked if there was any WFH Positions available in customer services that I could train and transfer into but they said they’re only for people based in Manchester which didn’t make much sense
You need to work 16hrs a week to qualify, so why don't you just increase your hours to 16 and then you will get the funded hours, of which you can then claim back upto 85% of your childcare costs.
@Rebecca it’s having someone to watch my sons those two extra days that I’d be working x
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Have you tried applying online? It just doesn’t make financial sense to send them to nursery if it takes all your income. Trust me you could teach them so much more at home than what nursery could.
Incog you put them in nursery?! Then you can claim back 85% of the cost
@Ema nothing comes up in my job except store positions. I stepped down from store manager as I didn’t want to be away from the boys 40hrs+ per week I work for a big “sports fashion” company and they don’t even offer childcare vouchers
@Ema so I think I may have to quit work and take the boys out of nursery until they are a bit older maybe
I meant applying for roles online, civil service, nhs, nhs supply chain, your local council. Customer service roles etc, they tend to be flexible around kids.
@Rebecca some nurseries won’t be able to offer immediate spaces for extra days, we had to wait nearly a year at our nursery to get an extra day added!
@Ema ohhh I haven’t thought of that. I can have a look into those roles My experience is mainly retail, hospitality management. But within those roles you have to have good customer service But I will definitely look into it x
@Frayere oh wow. That’s crazy a whole year xx
Can you not work more than 8 hours per week? That’s a crazy low amount of hours.