Childcare entitlement
I am aware this is a very lucky position to be in, so please don’t think I’m complaining, just trying to navigate!!
My husband is starting a job at some point in the next couple of months tbc where his salary will be just over 100,000. We are hoping to up his pension contributions slightly so that we are entitled to the 30 hours, as otherwise my salary becomes completely redundant/we will be paying more in childcare than I earn. He is starting this job after having to leave his previous role which ended in March.
How will our eligibility be assessed when a) he has been unemployed for the past 3/4 months
b) he is going to adjust his salary but obviously hasn’t yet
Is it done per tax year, calendar year, is there anyone I can talk to, like a helpline etc?
I am a teacher, so my daughter needs childcare from Sept 2026.
Grateful for any help xxxx
Who should get up on weekends
Please read first:
Together they have a 6 week old, a 2 year old and a 3.5 year old. He also has a nonverbal child, 14 years old who's with us on weekends.
He works, she's on maternity leave with no pay.
She gets up Monday to Friday to get toddlers dressed, fed and off to daycare while he gets ready for work then he drops them to daycare on the way there.
While he's at work, she does the laundry, any shopping, catches up on sleep & looks after baby.
She collects them from daycare in the afternoon and is alone with them all for a few hours until he gets home.
When he gets home, one of them starts dinner, sometimes him, sometimes her.
After dinner she cleans up while he puts the kids to bed (and bath if it's bath night).
This is also when the baby needs most feeding, so sometimes not all the cleaning gets done by the time the kids are in bed. Sometimes he helps finish the cleaning. Sometimes he smokes instead.
On weekends when his son is with us, he sleeps in until the afternoon. The toddlers wake sometimes as early as 6am, but usually 7am. Whoever gets up just feeds them breakfast and sticks on some TV to occupy them until the other is up. All the cleaning was done the night before so it's literally just supervision parenting.
The baby is breastfed and sleeps from 8pm until 10am only waking for feeding through the night.
Oh, and he hates mornings.
