Help with childcare costs if you are a student
If you are a mum or dad at school, sixth-form college or further education college, you may qualify for help with childcare costs. This could be in the form of, say, a cash grant, vouchers, direct payments to your carer or a crèche place at your college. Different schemes operate throughout the UK. For advice on what is available in your region, contact the student support or welfare officer at your college or student union, get in touch with Careers Advice, and see Useful contacts for further sources of information.
You are under age 20
In England, you can get up to £160* a week (£175* a week in London) towards childcare and associated travel costs through the Care to Learn scheme. In Wales, your college might make you an award from its Financial Contingency Fund. In Scotland, each college has a Childcare Fund which gives priority to supporting lone parents. You do not necessarily have to be on state help to qualify for these schemes.
Example
Sam is a lone parent on a full-time university course. He has the following income:
student grant and loan to cover his living costs: £150 a week
childcare grant (throughout the year, not just term time) which covers 85% of his son, Jack’s, nursery fees: £130 a week
Parent’s Learning Allowance to help with the costs of the course: £29 a week
Child Tax Credit: £53 a week.
This gives him a cash income of around £362 a week. He also gets Housing Allowance to cover his rent and has a student loan for his tuition fees.
Older students
In England, depending on your income, you may be able to get help with childcare costs through the Sixth Form College Childcare Scheme. Throughout the UK, university students who are parents may be able to get a childcare grant.
Having the baby made me rethink what I wanted to do. I left school without many qualifications. This grant for childcare means I can go back to college and do A-levels. After that I want to train as a teacher.
*Rates as at March 2010.