Talkback: Childcare costs account for nearly a third of average family's income

I can quite easily believe that! I currently work two days a week and I am fortunate that my mum looks after my lo while I'm at work. I would love to return to work full time but as I earn not much more than minimum wage I would actually end up in debt because childminders, nurseries, creches etc charge more per hour than I earn!

It really is expensive. We have our 2 girls and I don't work now, but with lee's wage we aren't entitled to anything other then child benefit and a smidge of family tax credit. My last few jobs have been at supervisor level but for this area that about 14k and nursery for these 2 would cost 18k. We wouldn't get any government support for childcare either so I'm staying off. it has made us completely look at our finances now though and after a bit of scrimping to clear some debt we are now lucky to be better off then we were with me working. Still got 10k more debt to go though. I keep hoping for a lottery win. i am always so confused by how other people afford to work and pay childcare for children as it really is such a huge chunk of peoples wage. I assumed people working in nurseries earnt a fortune but I was talking to a girl from school who works at a nursery near here and she said the wage is grim. It'd be great if the government opened nurseries that take kiddies from 6 weeks old and charged on a means tested basis to help people back to work without taking so much of peoples money that it seems depressing to see it go without much to show for it. I'm looking at putting both our 2 in a nursery round the corner that just charge per hour if you book a week in advance so they can have a bit of social time with other children. i think they're gonna love it and it's nice that I don't have to commit to a weekly fortune when I just dont have it.

I just weekends to work around my husband. We have 4 children, but it means we also have no family time. We could not afford childcare.

I only have one boy but if we had more than one it definately wouldnt be worht me working, I earn very little once I have paid out childcare but I do get a pension, healthcare and a company car so it was worth me coming back, if I have any more, harry will be in school by then so I wont have to pay out fo rmore than one.
My OH would have hated it if I didnt come back to work - not sure why!

Childcare is very expensive but when I work out the hourly rate its not that much to include food and drink, i do agree there should be some help, the government want people to work and some people actually cant affrod to!