Tiny violins at the ready, please: I am about to spin you a tale of financial misfortune that is steeped in privilege.
Once upon a time in 2017, the government launched “Free Childcare for Working Parents”, a scheme offering of pre-schoolers in England 30 hours of free childcare per week, for 38 weeks of the year. Households in which each parent earned between £6,240 (corresponding to 16 hours per week at the national minimum wage in 2017) and £100,000 per year could apply.
Nine years later, successive governments have attempted to tackle stubbornly high childcare costs by expanding the offer further. As of September 2025, parents of babies aged nine months or over became eligible for 30 hours of free term-time childcare. But most requirements remain unchanged.
Where and when to see solar eclipse – and do you need glasses?
With the UK set to see a rare partial solar eclipse on Wednesday evening, here is everything you need to know ahead of the event.
What you need to know
- A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves between the Earth and the Sun, obscuring the Sun’s light for a few minutes.
- Many parts of the country will experience between 89 per cent and 96 per cent coverage of the Sun.
- This year’s eclipse occurs in the evening, starting at around 6.15pm and ending a little after 8pm – depending on your location.
- The next total solar eclipse over the UK will not happen until 23 September 2090.
The best places to view it
People in the south-west of England are likely to get the most coverage.
For the best view, it is important to go high up. In London, this could mean Primrose Hill or the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
There will be events to watch the eclipse all over the country, including at Calton Hill in Edinburgh, Armagh Observatory, Pendennis Castle in Cornwall and the National Space Centre in Leicester.
Do you need glasses?
There has been a last-minute rush for eclipse glasses, with many high street shops and online retailers sold out. Experts have warned that normal sunglasses are not safe to use to view the solar event.
If you want to view the spectacle, you could alternatively use a pinhole camera to project the shadow of the eclipse onto a flat surface.
5 min read
We should smile at our dogs – a new scientific study reveals why
Man’s best friend can distinguish between positive and negative emotions, according to researchers at the University of Vienna.
What you need to know
- Scientists studied 14 dogs who sat in MRI scanners to see what happens in their brains.
- The reward centre of their brains “light up” with activity when shown photos of smiling human faces.
3 min read
What does this mean?
Laura Cuaya, one of the study’s lead researchers, said “This finding suggests that happy faces, even those of strangers, have a positive value for dogs”.
She added: “We can reward our dogs with treats, but also reward them with happiness.”
Firefighters work ‘tirelessly’ to contain fire
Firefighters are beginning a third day of tackling a fire in the New Forest which they say they are “managing to contain” after working “tirelessly” through the night.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service initially scrambled 26 fire engines and four water carriers to the eastbound A31 after receiving 160 emergency calls reporting a van had caught fire on Sunday evening.
How did the fire progress?
The fire service said the blaze spread from the vehicle to the central reservation before progressing into nearby heathland in a south-easterly direction towards Backley Bottom, and is in a “challenging rural location”.
An update released on Tuesday by the fire service said that a change in wind direction had “provided a challenge” overnight but it was managing to prevent “spread and escalation”.
Cows face backdrop of smoke
A closer look at the detail
A total of seven fire engines, with water carriers and off-road vehicles, were involved in the operation overnight, which continued to use water pumped through miles of pipes laid from a nearby lake as part of a high-volume pump (HVP) system.
And the A31 – the main route through the New Forest – remains closed, with National Highways saying that repairs needed to “significant” damage to the road surface can only start once the fire is safely under control.
The story in pictures
What did the fire service say?
Thanks to the efforts of firefighters we are managing to contain the fire. We have been using a mix of fire engines and off-road vehicles to damp down and cool the edges of the area involved in the fire to prevent spread and escalation.
How much parents could save from new school uniform rules
A new law coming into force in September means parents in England will save money by having to buy fewer branded items of school uniform.
What does the new law mean?
From September, uniforms will be limited to three items with a school logo, like a blazer, jumper or sportswear – plus a tie for secondary schools.
The government says the changes will save some families “up to £50 per child”.
How will the law be enforced?
Who is affected?
Around 23 per cent of secondary schools will have to change their uniform lists by September.
How will it be enforced?
The education secretary has legal powers to direct schools to comply.
The rest of the UK
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not have a cap on uniform items, but are encoureged to keep uniforms costs minimal.
How England could eliminate hepatitis C
England is “on the cusp” of becoming one of the first countries in the world to eliminate hepatitis C, health officials have said.
What have the health officials said?
Global health leaders have set out plans to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030.
NHS England said the nation is one of a handful of countries globally to have already exceeded the World Health Organisation benchmark of treating 80 per cent of all known cases.
It said that deaths from the virus have reduced by 36 per cent in the last 10 years.
What is hepatitis?
- Hepatitis C is spread through contact with blood infected with the virus.
- Many people have no symptoms but if it is not treated it can cause serious, and potentially life-threatening, liver damage.
- A treatment course of antiviral drugs for eight to 12 weeks cures more than 95 per cent of cases.
- NHS England said that since 2015, more than 100,000 people have been diagnosed and treated for hepatitis C.
The expert view
With C curable in more than nine out of 10 cases, we are committed to finding and treating everyone who needs support and would urge those at greater risk to come forward by ordering a free and confidential home-testing kit online.
Professor Frankie Swords, NHS national medical director
Why August is the worst month for drink driving
August is the worst month of the year for drink-drive crashes as summer events create “more opportunities” to get behind the wheel after consuming alcohol, according to new research.
What does the research show?
RAC analysis found an average of 721 people were injured or killed in drink-drive crashes in August between 2014 and 2024.
Before July, there was an average 704 casualties over the 11-year period.
December, which is often associated with drink driving, had an average of 663 casualties.
The expert view
Drink- is often seen more of a Christmas issue, but our shows collisions involving drivers who have consumed illegal levels of alcohol are actually far more common during the summer.
RAC head of policy Simon Williams
Williams added that warmer weather, longer evenings and “festivals and barbecues” create “opportunities and temptation” for people to drink and then get behind the wheel.
5 min read
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Are you having as much sex as everyone else?
It’s natural for libido to wax and wane due to life events, dating status or hormonal changes.
And it can be hard to say what a “normal” sexual frequency is. But research and case studies give us a rough idea.
The statistics
When it happens
61%
A 2023 survey concluded that almost two thirds (61 per cent) of us wait until night-time to have sex.
Only 14 per cent opt to get busy in the early evening, and 10 per cent in the morning.
Research from 2019 suggests that the average number of times British live-in or married couples have sex per month is three.
Are Gen Z having less sex than older people?
I see my partner on the weekends and have sex with others in the week.
Leanne, a 27-year-old influencer from Bristol has sex three or four times a week, but only sees her long-distance partner on the weekends. They have agreed they can both sleep with other people during the week.
35-year-old Rebecca usually sleeps with her partner once or twice per week due to not having much child-free time.
Clare, 32, says her job is busy and she has to schedule sex with her partner on weekends, or some afternoons twice a month. “Occasionally this slips and I do worry that it makes us not as connected,” she says.
I haven’t had the issue of my sex life drying up with menopause. I’m more aroused now.
I’ve been married for 15 years. I love my husband, but our sex life is non-existent, and has been for about five years.
I’m not really motivated to seek out partners; I vaguely like the idea of it but not enough to take any action.
I’ve been married for 20 years and sex has become something of a rarity. We maybe have sex once a week on a Sunday morning as we’re both relaxed and I can take Viagra late on Saturday night – without it, I can’t perform.
JACK, 63, OFFICE WORKER, KENT
The seven rules that could save your marriage
Keep your sense of self
I did what I thought I was supposed to do and forgot my needs and wants. I think it’s really important that you’re an individual and not just a person who is married.
KATIE STRATFORD*, A 55-YEAR-OLD MUM OF TWO, WHO DIVORCED ATER 19 YEARS
Seven rules to save your marriage
The small things
Small things, like being brought a cup of tea or saying thank you, make a big difference.
Karen Deulofeu, who ended her six-year marriage, believes all couples should seek support, even before they think they need it.
Listen properly by repeating what you have heard and ask if you’ve got that right.
Don’t lose communication
People don’t talk about the deep issues; nobody else is going to do it for you. You don’t want to ask questions because it might rock the boat…you have to keep talking, and talk about what it is that you want within the relationship to keep going forward.
KATIE STRATFORD
Seven rules to save your marriage
Remember that things change
“What you see on social media and what friends say is quite often the nice version. Everything is a phase,” says Deulofeu.
Look at yourself first
“Focus on what’s in your control and what you can do differently, rather than the other person or a situation that you can’t control. Invest in understanding yourself,” she adds.
To meet the threshold, parents must still earn the equivalent of 16 hours per week at the national minimum wage, which these days comes to £10,574.72. And they still can’t earn over £100,000.
While swathes of families are better off thanks to the scheme, for others caught on the wrong side of the thresholds, it has created a financial minefield. Anyone who is studying, job seeking or has been made redundant is ineligible. Eligible parents who are made redundant while receiving childcare, lose this help just when they become worse off and need it even more than when they were employed. Currently, around one million families are locked out because they earn little – or too much.
I am one of those parents. My husband earns more than £100,000. I, however, am a freelance writer with two young kids, so am currently grazing the underbelly of the lower threshold. It is the most uneven our finances have ever been. But, the result is that we pay full whack for our two children to attend nursery.
While couples earning up to £99,999 each – so with a household income of almost £200,000 – can access free childcare, which is a great loophole for them, we get no help because only one of us earns more than £100,000.
New figures from the Department for Education show the number of children being denied government-funded care because of the £100,000 threshold has more than quadrupled since 2018, with between 50,500 and 99,000 children affected in the 2025/26 tax year.
The £100,000 threshold assumes a capacity to independently absorb huge childcare costs that we don’t recognise in our daily financial life. We pay £1,800 per month for two part-time nursery places (and we’re not in the South East). We are in the early years of our mortgage and have gas and electricity bills that seem increasingly ridiculous, just like everybody else. We have cut back on most of the non-essentials we can think of. We’re relying on savings to help pay for childcare.
A major issue for our family is that the free hours are not, in fact, free. The government scheme is underfunded, meaning most providers have to claw back the shortfall in other ways, often by raising their normal hourly rate. These increases are felt keenly by those of us who pay full price.
Politicians know that high earners are unlikely to garner sympathy among the general public. The average UK salary is £39,039, and some four million children are currently living in poverty. But framing those earning £100,000 as boundlessly wealthy is merely a useful political tactic to distract from the severe ongoing impact of fiscal drag on households at all income levels nationwide.
Back in 2017, £100,000 was more than six times the minimum wage – today it’s four times the minimum wage. Everyone is being squeezed in the middle, while tax and benefits thresholds are frozen. Interestingly, MPs recently raised their salaries to £98,599. Will anything change when they cross the threshold? Or will they, too, be renouncing the free childcare they so badly designed?
Our nursery bill is becoming untenable, so I’m looking for more stable work so that my husband can divert money into his pension, which would allow us to use the funding. It feels wrong to consider playing the system when we would be happy to contribute, but the way the system is currently designed is forcing our hand.
And what’s the alternative? Admitting defeat and giving up work completely, ignoring the ballooning interest on my student loan debt and losing valuable years of pension contributions?
Pegging childcare thresholds to individual salaries rather than to household income penalises financially unbalanced partnerships like mine. But more importantly, it penalises single-parent households, and that is unjustifiable. And in both cases, it’s mostly women paying the price.
I don’t subscribe to the belief that high earners work the hardest. Most people I know work extremely hard, regardless of their tax band. What is objectively true is that those earning £100,000 pay a much higher proportion of their salaries in tax. Is it fair for them to then be blocked from using the services those taxes help fund?
As a country, we owe it to children to ensure that their parents’ financial situation doesn’t put them at an educational or developmental disadvantage in the early years, and low-earning families and those trapped in poverty must be given access to free childcare for this reason as a priority. But the maths just isn’t working for many parents at the other end of the pay scale, either. The entire policy needs an overhaul.
My generation is always being told not to have children we can’t afford, and the falling birthrate seems to indicate that people are heeding that advice. Sooner or later, that will be everyone’s problem. But right now, thousands of children are missing out on funded childcare because of an unnecessarily punitive and complicated system. For a policy designed to help children develop, and parents (mostly mothers, let’s be honest) get back to work, the Government’s current offer does a remarkably good job of keeping both at home.
*Liane Brady is a pseudonym