Lack of childcare support for parents in higher education
A parent says childcare rules wrongly treated her as a non-earner during NHS placements, leaving her with a large repayment and doubts about finishing a PhD.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
Roberta Leem-Bruggen says childcare support rules penalise parents in postgraduate study. She was later told she had not been eligible during unpaid NHS placements and had to repay nearly £10,000.
A mum says the rules for help with childcare treated her like she was not really working, even though she was doing long hospital placements. It was like being told to climb a ladder while carrying a heavy backpack, then being surprised she struggled.
Analysis
What happened
Roberta Leem-Bruggen responds to another letter about childcare eligibility by describing her own experience in higher education. In 2020, she was a single parent studying for a clinical master’s degree and doing more than 40 hours a week of compulsory NHS placements while also completing academic work.
She says universal credit, including the childcare element, helped her stay in the course at first. But midway through the degree, she was told she had never been eligible because she was not technically earning while on placement. That triggered a demand to repay close to £10,000.
Why she says the system fails parents
Leem-Bruggen says she challenged the decision in court, but the repayment still stood because she did not meet the criteria. She describes the work as effectively full-time and supervised patient care, yet says she was still classed as a “non-earner”.
She is now doing a PhD while raising three children and depending on her husband’s income plus her stipend. Even so, she says childcare costs could make the doctorate impossible when she returns from maternity leave.
The broader point
Her letter argues that the current system does not give meaningful support to families when one parent is in postgraduate education rather than conventional paid employment. In her view, that leaves higher education out of reach for parents without savings or relatives who can help with care.
The practical message is simple: without a better fit between childcare support and study pathways, some parents may have to choose between starting a family and pursuing higher education.
Key points
- Roberta Leem-Bruggen says she was doing full-time NHS placements while studying, yet was later treated as ineligible for childcare support.
- She says she had to repay nearly £10,000 after being told she was a 'non-earner' under the rules.
- She is now doing a PhD with three children and says childcare could make the degree financially impossible after maternity leave.
- Her letter argues that the current system makes higher education harder for parents without money or family help.
If childcare rules are changed to better fit postgraduate study and placements, parents could keep training without sudden repayment shocks. That would make higher education more reachable for families without private financial help.
If the current rules stay the same, more parents may find postgraduate study too expensive to continue, especially after maternity leave. The system could keep favouring people who already have savings or family support, while others face repayments and exit courses early.
