A father of twins who earns £30,000 a year asked money saving expert Martin Lewis if he would be better off simply quitting his job and living off benefits instead.
Martin Lewis heard from the dad, Michael, on The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on ITV1 on Tuesday.
Unfortunately, Michael who has eight-month-old twins said he was facing childcare costs of a staggering £3,000 a month and he 'simply can't afford to go back to work'.
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Michael told Martin: "We have eight month old twins and simply can't afford to go back to work.
"Childcare costs for five days per week are coming in at over £3,000 a month.
"I earn £30k per year but this is not enough to support our family.
"Is there any help available to us or are we, I hate to say it, better off on quitting our jobs and going on benefits?"
Martin replied to him, telling his ITV1 viewers: "I think there is a political issue going on in this country right now about the level of childcare support. I know it is a debate across different parties of government and within different parties of government.
"And of course we want people in our economy to be able to go out to work and have their children looked after.
"Now there is childcare help available out there. Michael, I have to be honest, I cannot tell you if you will qualify but follow the three steps I'm going to give you through."
Martin said that there are about 800,000 people missing out on official regulated childcare help at the moment .
He said if your child is aged between three and four, you could be due a free 15 to 30 hours of childcare per week.
Martin continued that if you pay for childcare and your family's income is below £40,000 then you should do a benefits calculation online.
If you're already on Universal Credit and you aren't getting childcare money, you could be due up to 85% of the childcare costs and if you're on Tax Credits, you could be due up to 70% of your childcare costs.
And he added that if you have tried both of those, there is tax-free childcare available to those working and earning National Minimum Wage for more than 16 hours per week. If you put in 80p, the state adds another 20p, up to a max of £2,000 a year until the child turns 11, and you can apply via gov.uk.
Martin added: "Michael I hope some of that works for you, I can't promise that it will but it's worth exploring all these options."
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