As dental practices alter their services and opening hours to meet the demands of patients, you may find that you are starting work earlier or finishing later than before.

If you are a working parent, you’ll soon find that the average dental nurse salary is hard pressed to cover an increase in childcare costs.

Although you may be able to get help from family members and friends, there is help in the form of tax credits that you are entitled to; and should definitely take advantage of.

How does it work?

Depending on you and your partners total income combined (or yours solely if you are a single parent), you can claim for a contribution towards childcare. Direct.gov has a handy questionnaire/calculator to help you work out how much you can get

In some cases you will be able to claim

ï    Up to £175 a week if you have one child

ï    Up to £300 if you have two or more children

As a rule of thumb, you are entitled to claim if both you and your partner work more than 16 hours a week and earn less than £58,175 a year combined. If your child is under one year old you could claim with an income of up to £66,350.

The only stipulation is that these credits must be used with childcare providers registered with Ofsted. A list of approved childcare providers can be found at http://childcarefinder.direct.gov.uk/childcarefinder .

What else is available?

Childcare vouchers.

If you have children up to 15 years old, a childcare voucher can save you incredible amounts of money each year.

As a parent or a couple, you are each entitled to £243 worth of childcare vouchers which are purchased directly from your pre-tax salary, meaning that you do not pay tax on the vouchers.

As a basic rate tax payer (which as a dental nurse you would be) you could see savings of up to £1,808 per year or up to £2,392 per year as a higher-rate taxpayer.

Childcare vouchers are available to any one regardless of income, providing their employer is signed up to the government scheme.

Ask your dentist to sign up as it benefits them too! They would end up saving hundreds of pounds on the national insurance contributions that they pay for their employees. If they are stuck on where to start looking for this scheme, point them in the direction of http://www.kiddivouchers.com/ or http://www.employersforchildcare.org

You should bear in mind, if you claim vouchers and are eligible for tax credits at the same time, it might affect your level of tax credit entitlement. Use the government calculator below to see if you are better off claiming credits or vouchers at

http://ccincalculator.hmrc.gov.uk/CCIN0.aspx .

Child benefit.

Please don’t forget to claim child benefit regardless of your status. You are entitled to £20 per week for your eldest child up to 19 years old still in full time education, and an extra £13.20 for every additional child. Find out more at

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/index.htm .

We are always keen to share money saving tips with dental nurses ñ as the saying goes: every little helps. If you know of any other tax breaks or discounts that dental nurses can benefit from, head to our forum now to share the information with each other.