Theres no reference in this link to the impact on parents of multiples and increasingly such families are being identified as being at considerable risk of poverty and other social ills by mere fact of having to spend out a lot of money at the same time, and are prime sufferers from real time reductions in Child Benefit or Tax Credits. TAMBA has carried out some good research on this subject so I'll try and post a link sometime.

In respect of childcare fees, £1000 per month is cheap considering that most places charge £60 a day, and I've found little distinction between nurseries and childminders. At £60 a day thats around £300 per 5 day week, allow a bit of discount ie £260 per week, that averages out roughly at around £14k per annum which is more than £1000 per month. In north London it can be higher. Nannies (live out) can be £36k per annum, and although it may seem good value, they need annual holidays, can go sick, and have personal and family emergencies like the rest of us, have a bit of admin to do on their payroll, tax and NI (or you can pay an agency to do it). If a nanny is sick then you normally have to pay them something and pay for an alternative arrangement. You may need legal advice on employment law at some point. It will all add up. In our situation we found that a nanny was paid more than a teacher hence my teacher partner was the one who went part time to look after the kids whilst I returned to do longer hours. It is a real economic and personal issue for many families and there is rarely any change from the childcare fees. Like Derbyhill top and a lot of other people we have spent our savings on topping up our household deficit. Nurseries are free after 3 years old yes but only for a part time place and children still need care so most families I know still pay the childminder whilst the child goes to nursery.

You can get more subsidised nursery places ie workplace nurseries, ones linked to childrens centres, but you have to be lucky to get in.

Having lost a job before I continued to pay childcare fees for 10 months from my redundancy package whilst continuing to look for work as I had no chance of a job if I had to spend weeks faffing around trying to find childcare. There were stories of women being given two weeks to find childcare in order to take up a job or face losing benefit if they lost the job in those circumstances. If you are trying to work out whether it pays to work, you will have to decide whether you can manage on one income without signing on, but if you don't sign on, you can't accrue NI and protect your pension, if you do sign on,( which you have to do in order to claim mortgage insurance) you have to workhard still at applying for 6 or so jobs per week. You will be subject to spot check interviews and after a few months the dole office will find jobs for you to go for. In my case the jobs were in Walthamstow 9-5 which would have made it difficult to drop off and pick up my child. Fortunately I didn't get an interview.

The other thing people need to consider whilst signing on is that you have to confirm at the start that you are willing to work a full week in order to obtain benefits. You can not state that you can only work part time for childcare reasons as this is likely to disqualify you for benefits. So for many working mothers the options are either to pretend that you can work full time or not bother at all. There are no concessions and in my case, certainly no question of assistance with childcare fees nor even a trickle of interest in my circumstances. I was getting £60 a week on benefits whilst spending £60 a day on childcare.

There are probably a few people who flout the system but I have to say I have only known a few in my lifetime and I have lived in former manufacturing and industrial areas where mass unemployment was the norm and where unemployment was over 40%. There are simply not hoards of people sitting round rolling in it on giro day in most places in the UK. Most people on benefits have to work hard at staying on benefits whilst looking for work so in my experience its a full time occupation. If you live in an area with little about then more deeply ingrained issues arise and the longer one is on benefits the less chance of being appealing to the job market.

At the end of the day our choices are what is best for our sanity and for our family and whatever works. There should be no shame in deciding to give up work to look after ones family if working does not make financial sense. Financially we also seem to be working for free as one wage goes towards enabling us to work, and I don't think thats fair do's at all.