(Uk) how do single mums afford childcare?

Where is uk as Scotland and England is different? X

I honestly don’t know! I think if you’re on UC it could be affordable as I believe you get 85% of your childcare costs covered. If I was on my own I wouldn’t be able to afford my current childcare fees and I am on what’s classed as a “middle to higher earner” in Scotland so would get no help but wouldn’t be able to afford the nursery bills, my mortgage and transport to work if I didn’t have my partners income so would need to give up my job. It’s disgraceful. I don’t know how people do it x

So if u are in Scotland and on UC when ur little one is 2years old u get 30 hours for free. Then when they are 3 all children get 30 hours for free.
Under 2 years and working and wanting to pay for a nursery u can claim a percentage back of childcare costs but it’s not a lot percentage I think it’s 20 % when working. X

Tax-Free Childcare is a government scheme to help working families with their childcare costs. Parents can open an online childcare account to pay their registered childcare providers directly. For every £8 a parent pays into their account, the government will add £2.

Universal credit pay back upto 85% of childcare (it is subject to deductions tho)

If not it’s a matter of waiting it out for the free hours
Tax free childcare too

This is for England :)

Almost impossible if I come if income is low and depends on cost of childcare

I wrote to the Scottish government a month ago to ask why we are not getting the 15 free hours from age 1 like England are, despite them getting the money from the UK gov to do it. I’ve yet to get a response! It would save us around £100 a week if they gave us this.

this isnt in affect yet in England either.. also I doubt it will be offered by many childcare providers as the funding is far too low :( it’s so awful!
BUT if they’re been given the funding to do it surely they should!

absolutely! I heard of people down south putting in their applications for their 15 hours for 2024 then there’s wider roll out in September. Apparently it was the same in Scotland when the UK gov introduced the 30 free hours in England. It took Scotland a few years to follow suit despite getting the money for it. They probably will do it eventually but by the time they do my son will be out of nursery lol 😬

so the new 15 hours coming in April is for 2 year olds for under 2s doesn’t start until next September! Applications aren’t open yet either - and childcare providers have been told nothing about it 🤣

The cost of childcare is a joke!!

aww I thought I read something on here about people putting in their applications for 1YO for next year but maybe I’ve misread it. I read on the governments website that all parts of the UK are getting their money from January but it’s basically up to them how they use it. My son turns two in May so even if we could get it for him from September it would make a massive difference to us because right now we pay for 52 hours of nursery per week. We get the tax free allowance but even with that our bill is over £1300 per month 😭. Hopefully everything goes to plan for you and you get your hours from September ❤️

Low incomes - UC pay upto 85%

Earning under £100k - tax free childcare gives up to £2,000 a year towards costs

I work for the local council as a nursery nurse and for the new hours coming in 2025 and onwards as it’s a role out in Scotland for 2 year olds they are going to need to train staff fast and build some
More building as there won’t be enough places for all children to go. X