Demitri_C Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 1 hour ago, Stevo985 said: Reports that 30 hours free childcare a week will be extended to 1 and 2 year olds in the budget today. Would be a huge help As much as the tories have been absolutely shit, this i think is actually excellent news and one of the few things they have done right Parents can get back to work and not have to go part time/quit jobs to look after their kids. Going to help families massively Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted March 15, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted March 15, 2023 It's good news for my daughter, who's expecting her second in May. Won't be enough to get her to vote Tory though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 Of course this happened as my kids would be too old to benefit from It's good, but as we know, it'll only be done if the Tories can get the worker bees back to work quicker. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted March 15, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted March 15, 2023 1 hour ago, Genie said: I’m pretty sure when mine were young it was 16/18 ours until 2 (or older). It will be a good move if they implement it. You get tax paid for you by the government for under 3's at the moment, which is better than nothing for sure, but still leaves huge bills. 30 hours free would save me about £800 a month 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted March 15, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted March 15, 2023 1 hour ago, Demitri_C said: As much as the tories have been absolutely shit, this i think is actually excellent news and one of the few things they have done right Parents can get back to work and not have to go part time/quit jobs to look after their kids. Going to help families massively Yeah I agree. I mean I haven't seen any analysis yet so there may be a catch, there usually is with the Tories. But we have some of the highest childcare costs in the world so anything to help that seems like a good step. It's barely worth Jack's mom going back to work. In fact I think we'd have been better off financially if she didn't go back and looked after Jack full time. It's only her desire to keep working that meant being a full time mom hasn't been an option. That's an insane situation to be in, especially for someone who earns a half decent wage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted March 15, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted March 15, 2023 46 minutes ago, mjmooney said: Won't be enough to get her to vote Tory though. Yeah no chance it sways my vote 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 2 minutes ago, Stevo985 said: You get tax paid for you by the government for under 3's at the moment, which is better than nothing for sure, but still leaves huge bills. 30 hours free would save me about £800 a month I’ve been trying to remember, but I think they used to get 16 hours free right up to when they went into reception. 30 hours free will be great news for parents but also the economy I’d have thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogso Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 From what my girlfriend tells me, who deals with all the nursery bills, it's a little more nuanced than simply 30 free hours. It goes something like, 30 free hours during term time only, but you can stretch it over 52 weeks: term time is defined as 38 weeks of the year, so if you do use nursery during term time for 52 weeks per year, it's 21 hours 55 minutes per week, although you would also then have to pay their daily food bill (this could be exclusive to our nursery, I have no idea, but at the moment we don't pay for food, with the free hours we would). Slight caveat that the nursery year may actually be 51 weeks due to Xmas closure, in which case you'd get 22 hours 21 minutes (in real terms, I don't know how the rounding works, could be to the nearest whole hour, in which case it's simply 22 hours either way). Regardless, it'll be a bit of a game changer for a lot of families, ours included. It would mean we not only save money, but my girlfriend could go back to work full time too, and subsequently get full time mat leave pay as and when we have a second. She doesn't want to go back to full time really, but the incentive will be there now - this is assuming it starts either straight away, or from this September in line with the school terms, as our daughter is eligible for the 30 hours for 3 year olds from the January 2024 term anyway. Big difference for any second kid though. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 1 hour ago, Stevo985 said: Yeah I agree. I mean I haven't seen any analysis yet so there may be a catch, there usually is with the Tories. But we have some of the highest childcare costs in the world so anything to help that seems like a good step. It's barely worth Jack's mom going back to work. In fact I think we'd have been better off financially if she didn't go back and looked after Jack full time. It's only her desire to keep working that meant being a full time mom hasn't been an option. That's an insane situation to be in, especially for someone who earns a half decent wage Agree with all that stevo. Lets hope there isnt a catch on this one. Guess we will see later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted March 15, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted March 15, 2023 3 hours ago, Demitri_C said: Agree with all that stevo. Lets hope there isnt a catch on this one. Guess we will see later Oh, look - there is. Doesn't come in until September 2025. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mozzavfc Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 1 minute ago, mjmooney said: Oh, look - there is. Doesn't come in until September 2025. Absolute ****. The first part of it (for 2 year year olds) doesn't start until April 2024. They'll be out of government by the time it reaches 1 year olds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted March 15, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted March 15, 2023 Sounds like I might get a year of it when Jack's 2 but for the next year it'll be normal. I'll stop spending that £800 a month in my head then 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogso Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 Broken down, it's: up to two years old will get 15 hours free from April 2024 from nine months up will get 15 hours from September 2024 full 30 hours free childcare per week for children under five and from September 2025 Cited as required due to ensuring there are enough Nursery spaces to meet the demand. I wonder if they will help to get those recently closed Nursery's up and running again to achieve this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mozzavfc Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 Was there any mention of changing the child:carer ratio? I assume they would lower the ratios to help lower costs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chappy Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 6 minutes ago, Mozzavfc said: Was there any mention of changing the child:carer ratio? I assume they would lower the ratios to help lower costs 1:5 instead of 1:4 but not a compulsory change. As for them kicking this can down the road… shouldve known not to think these Tories might do something that would benefit me! Our boy will be 3 in April 2024 so its another year of paying top dollar! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 32 minutes ago, mjmooney said: Oh, look - there is. Doesn't come in until September 2025. you just knew it. 26 minutes ago, Mozzavfc said: Absolute ****. The first part of it (for 2 year year olds) doesn't start until April 2024. They'll be out of government by the time it reaches 1 year olds Well regardless if they are in government surely our saviour the labour party won't drop it? It would be a complete shitshow from labour if they didnt go ahead with it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mozzavfc Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 8 minutes ago, Demitri_C said: Well regardless if they are in government surely our saviour the labour party won't drop it? It would be a complete shitshow from labour if they didnt go ahead with it 30 free hours for 2 years+ was part of Labour's last manifesto, and they've been banging the drum on support for families recently, so you'd assume they'd at least match the Tories here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogso Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 I'm actually quite pleased with the confirmation, it will work out really well for couples or families planning to have kids in the next 12 months or so - whose kid would therefore be starting nursery around the time the real benefits kick in. I think it's also a bit of a stretch to expect that the current market for nursery spaces could accommodate potentially hundreds of extra days per week if the government just suddenly opened it up, or even if they did it in line with the new school term in Sept '23. I don't know about the towns and cities you guys live in, but to get my daughter in to nursery we were turned down from 3 of them before finding one with vacancy for when we needed it, and this was over a year ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted March 15, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted March 15, 2023 1 hour ago, hogso said: Broken down, it's: up to two years old will get 15 hours free from April 2024 Assume you mean 2 years and up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted March 15, 2023 Share Posted March 15, 2023 If I were nitpicking, I'd rather they increased child benefit so parents can choose whether to use it for daytime childcare or whether to use it for living while providing continued hands on parenting, rather than it being a perk for just getting your arse back into work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts