No creche available support

CPTM

Hello, I was wondering what happens when it comes to the dole (or whatever its called) and looking after a baby. The situation is that my wife really wants to go back to work 6 months after the baby is born but there are no creches available in our area. They're all full and aren't accepting applications. What happens when this is the case? Are there any state benefits she could claim until a creche becomes available?

Peatys

CPTM wrote: »

Hello, I was wondering what happens when it comes to the dole (or whatever its called) and looking after a baby. The situation is that my wife really wants to go back to work 6 months after the baby is born but there are no creches available in our area. They're all full and aren't accepting applications. What happens when this is the case? Are there any state benefits she could claim until a creche becomes available?

Is there any near the job?

CPTM

Peatys wrote: »

Is there any near the job?

Unfortunately not - and also she's in a contract role which is due to finish up 6 weeks after she returns from maternity leave. She would be hoping to get a job somewhere else but doesn't know where that will be.

splinter65

CPTM wrote: »

Hello, I was wondering what happens when it comes to the dole (or whatever its called) and looking after a baby. The situation is that my wife really wants to go back to work 6 months after the baby is born but there are no creches available in our area. They're all full and aren't accepting applications. What happens when this is the case? Are there any state benefits she could claim until a creche becomes available?

Are you working?

CPTM

splinter65 wrote: »

Are you working?

Yes I'm working in contract work myself. I'm a bit more stable where I am (for this year at any rate) but creches near my work are not accepting applications this year (only waiting lists). I don't really know how we would get the baby to our work places anyways since we're both on mopeds due to lack of parking and the alternative of bringing all the baby stuff on multiple buses for 2 hours of morning rush hour wouldn't realistically be possible. The thing is that she wants to work but is not technically "available to work" because there's no where to leave the baby. Are there welfare options available or are we a bit stuck?

Princess Calla

Would a childminder be an option?

Not sure if there's a benefit, otherwise all stay at home mums would be on it.

CPTM

Princess Calla wrote: »

Would a childminder be an option?

Not sure if there's a benefit, otherwise all stay at home mums would be on it.

Yeah I was thinking this about the stay at home mams. So they aren't on any kind of welfare then. I mean that's the other option but ideally for the mortgage repayments we would both be working. 6 months is fine but several years would be tough on us. I was hoping there would be some kind of help for this specifically. In other words if we prove to revenue that no creches are available by way of rejection emails is there any help out there.

Childminder maybe, but I would be nervous about that (potentially the only ones available are not registered or properly trained etc).

Sarn

Unfortunately there’s pretty much nothing for the short term. We didn’t start looking at crèches until our little one was a few weeks old. The earliest we could get him in was 15 months later. Needless to say that has posed some problems with having to go back to work.

coffeyt

If she has enough prsi contributions she should be able to claim jobseekers benefit which runs I think for 9 months.
They do disallow for the first 9 weeks (I think that's correct) if she leaves a job of her own accord but they do take circumstances into account so if she advises of the lack of childcare they may award it immediately.

mickuhaha

Was in a similar situation. We couldn't get a family member and ended up getting a child minder. There is no other way unfortunately.

Princess Calla

Have you looked into family income support?

There's different thresholds as far as I know.

Moonbeam

childminding.ie and your local childcare committee are worth talking to.
Unfortunately she would not be entitled to anything from social welfare.

splinter65

OP there’s no payment for stay at home parents but you can apply for WFP and depending on what you earn and how many children you have you will get a weekly set amount for a minimum of 12 months.

Sleeper12

CPTM wrote:

Childminder maybe, but I would be nervous about that (potentially the only ones available are not registered or properly trained etc).

You will get plenty of babysitters alm anywhere in Ireland for little money. If you want someone trained, qualified, with insurance & police clearance then you will have to pay for this.

My own daughter is a qualified child minder in Dublin. She gave up working for crèches as the wage is only slightly over minimum wage. She is a nanny. She has nanny car insurance, is qualified, has certificates in life saving etc. She gets around 20 euros per hour. I have sisters who mind children in their own home for 5 to 10 euros per hour. They are police cleared and have nanny insurance on their cars but they are not qualified or trained childminders. They are both mammys though.

At the end of the day saying to social welfare that you feel nervous leaving your child with a babysitter won't get you anywhere.

Your wife will be entitled to job seekers allowance while looking for a job. I'm not sure what happens nowadays but back in the day I had a few hair salons. Most of the staff were female and at an age where they were having children. Quite a few of them suffered from depression for a bit and with the help of their doctor they went on illness benefit before they go back to work.

wifey28

If your wife isnt available for work then there is no social welcare payment that you can get while staying home to mind a child.
Yo could look into working family payment if your under the threshold
And she could give you her tax credit if your married so that would make your income slightly higher also.
IF she were to try to claim jobseekers they would want proof that she is actually looking for and available for full time work, otherwise you can easily get caught these days and be made to repay any payments

CPTM

wifey28 wrote: »

If your wife isnt available for work then there is no social welcare payment that you can get while staying home to mind a child.
Yo could look into working family payment if your under the threshold
And she could give you her tax credit if your married so that would make your income slightly higher also.
IF she were to try to claim jobseekers they would want proof that she is actually looking for and available for full time work, otherwise you can easily get caught these days and be made to repay any payments

Thanks, no if we're not legitimately entitled to it then it's not for us. I'm not sure we'd qualify for any help because we are probably over the threshold and they probably dont consider high mortgage repayments when assessing income. If you look at our joint income alone we're probably learning towards 'high earners' but with mortgage repayments we need both of us working. We'll have to figure something out. Maybe I should get into the creche business!

dartboardio

Childminder is best.

You can find some great people out there that have experience of their own children and also minding other kids.

Usually much less than a creche. Obviously they can also give references and show they are garda vetted etc.

My mam done that with me a few years ago, and my childminder used to pick me up from school and give me dinner etc until my mam picked me up.

Not sure how much they'd charge per day though.

endofrainbow

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coffeyt wrote: »

If she has enough prsi contributions she should be able to claim jobseekers benefit which runs I think for 9 months.
They do disallow for the first 9 weeks (I think that's correct) if she leaves a job of her own accord but they do take circumstances into account so if she advises of the lack of childcare they may award it immediately.

How would she qualify for Jobseekers if she's not available and actively seeking work ?

coffeyt

endofrainbow wrote: »

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How would she qualify for Jobseekers if she's not available and actively seeking work ?

I was under the impression she would be looking for a new job as per the op's 2nd post as he stated she only had 6 wks left on her contract and would be looking for a new job. I was referring to that period of time while she would be looking for a new job, apologies if that wasn't clear.