benefit fraud !!

[maryp0ppins]

:(

Parent asked me to write a letter so she can claim max benefits. I wrote hours & price of invoice she pays.....

Well its only a few week later & she has dropped her hours to a lot less than HALF of what I wrote on the letter.

I wrote to mum stating it is her responsibility to contact working tax credits so my back is well & truly covered..

Really wish parents wouldn't take the mickey!!!

I'm thinking of having a policy where once contracts are signed they must provide me with their NI number so when they leave/reduce hours I can contact the inland revenue myself & stop people using my reg number as a state hand out!!!!!

[wellybelly]

:(

Parent asked me to write a letter so she can claim max benefits. I wrote hours & price of invoice she pays.....

Well its only a few week later & she has dropped her hours to a lot less than HALF of what I wrote on the letter.

I wrote to mum stating it is her responsibility to contact working tax credits so my back is well & truly covered..

Really wish parents wouldn't take the mickey!!!

I'm thinking of having a policy where once contracts are signed they must provide me with their NI number so when they leave/reduce hours I can contact the inland revenue myself & stop people using my reg number as a state hand out!!!!!

I've done just that in my own terms and conditions. It states any parent who has asked me in the past to write and confirm hours / prices to the inland revenue for the purposes of tax credits are obliged to inform the inland revenue of any changes in their contract with myself.

Why don't tax credits just speak with us and stop relying on parents to tell them. I'm not surprised the system is a mess!

[kindredspirits]

sadly i think even if you had ALL their details tax credits wouldn't be interested. :rolleyes:

[mummyof3]

Happening to me one of my ex-parents is still claiming a whopping £275 a week in childcare and isn't using me anymore she is self employed and her mum has the children :eek: She stopped payments into my bank in april so i'm just hoping if it all goes belly up I'm covered. There is no point in ringing as they aren't interested :rolleyes:

[RainbowMum]

Tax credits office may not be interested - but HMRC are - you can report this to them!

[Ripeberry]

Happening to me one of my ex-parents is still claiming a whopping £275 a week in childcare and isn't using me anymore she is self employed and her mum has the children :eek: She stopped payments into my bank in april so i'm just hoping if it all goes belly up I'm covered. There is no point in ringing as they aren't interested :rolleyes:

Well they should be bothered. Everyone needs to tighten their belts. People are losing their jobs because of wastage in the benefits system.

Why can't their bosses make it a priority? I think the NCMA plan to use vouchers would be the best way and as said before, if you write a letter to prove hours then we need to parents NI numbers.

That will stop them fiddling the system :mad:

[Chimps Childminding]

Its crazy, they are on about cutting child benefit to save some money, but people blatently claim money they are not entitled to, and when you try and tell the Tax Credits people they aren't interested :angry: :angry:

They need to check with us who pays us what, or better still pay directly to us. There are so many people out of work, you would think it would be easy to employ people to check up :rolleyes:

[mummyof3]

We should have a link we can go to where we can check who is claiming on our number and a report button next to any that shouldn't be claiming - would make it so much easier!!

[bexcee]

If they paid the childcare money direct to the childcare provides ie us then it would cut down on all fraud. It is really open to abuse from the parents as once they have our number or indeed anyone's number they can claim they are working 60 hours a week.

[Mykidsrock]

They should either pay it direct to us or should allow us to speak to them to keep them updated about how much we are charging (personally I prefer the 1st option as that is all I really have time for).

However, once they have our EY number they can claim all sorts and we can do nothing about it, besides report them to HMRC which I have been advised takes at least 6 months to investigate (why I have no idea).

I think we all just need to be vigilant and every time a parent changes something - such as hours then we write a letter to the parent reminding them of their duty to inform tax credits etc. That way if we ever get that call or letter from tax credits then we can also prove we have informed the parent on such a date that they were the ones who were duty bound to make the changes not us.

I had a new parent ask me yesterday if I could exegerate (sp) how much she pays (we are only in the first month of contract) as tax credits are taking payments off her each month for claiming when she had stopped childcare a year before. I quite rightly said no, I would only concern what I charge and nothing more. I personally think if she has defrauded the system once, then this is a clear indication that her payments should go direct to the provider, not her. I am giving her one chance to pay me correctly and on time and if not, it notice. I have doubts now she has asked me this.

At the end of the day the benefits office can pay housing benefit direct to a landlord, would it really be that hard to put a system in place to pay the child care provider direct? Is this not what happen with government funded places - there must be a way to do this for childminders and tax credits.

xx Jess xx

[mum2two]

[QUOTE=CAROLYN;792500]
They need to check with us who pays us what, or better still pay directly to us. QUOTE]

I like the idea of the voucher system, so only registered people can claim the money, but wouldn't want to be paid it directly.

How many times do they mess it up, or parents forget to tell them about a change, and a big chunk has to be repaid... If it was going to us, would they then write to us to claim back x amount of money????

Can't be doing with all that stress!

x

[carol cameron]

Like the idea of voucher scheme and also a button to check who's claiming with our number. If only a childminder worked in the treasury we could cut benefit fraud by a chunk:)
Notice that mykids rock says that landlords get paid directly but not from my council they don't. Tenants have to be 8 weeks in arrears before they will even consider paying direct. Bit stupid when the tenant would prefer it to be paid directly but there you go- more rules made up by people who haven't a clue what life's like in the real world where bills have to be paid:angry:

[PRINCESSDAISYFLOWER]

go on the government website and report her for benifit fraud!

[caz3007]

I had someone approach me who I knew a bit from the school, she was all ready to sign contracts and then said can we agree on you stating I pay you more for the tax credits, no was my answer and funny enough the child never came to me

[Pixie dust]

The whole system is a nightmare, I have a parent who has just told me she has been claiming "extra" as she can't afford to live on what she earns and is now worried as they have stopped the money as they wrote to me asking what she is paying!!! She can't understand what she has done wrong.


Pixie dust

[funfunfun]

I wonder if .............

This has an effect on our actual "income" ????

with lots of people saying they use childminders they dont actually use or saying its twice the price .

[JJ1]

Hi guys.
I have contacted tax credits before to let them know that I was no longer providing care for a child and they just don't care. They said the only way I could do anything was to lodge a complaint that the parent was claiming fraudulently.

[Chimps Childminding]

[QUOTE=CAROLYN;792500]
They need to check with us who pays us what, or better still pay directly to us. QUOTE]

I like the idea of the voucher system, so only registered people can claim the money, but wouldn't want to be paid it directly.

How many times do they mess it up, or parents forget to tell them about a change, and a big chunk has to be repaid... If it was going to us, would they then write to us to claim back x amount of money????Can't be doing with all that stress!

x

Hadn't thought of that :blush:

[PRINCESSDAISYFLOWER]

Hi guys.
I have contacted tax credits before to let them know that I was no longer providing care for a child and they just don't care. They said the only way I could do anything was to lodge a complaint that the parent was claiming fraudulently.

Then do it definatly, TC is a benifit like any other so they are committing benifit fraud!

[karen m]

had tax credits call me a couple weeks ago checking on what i charged and what hours i had child A & B,told them that parent had told me she was claiming extra just in case she needed me during holidays ,not that i have any places then offered to secure place for child A when he started school but mum said no only needed term time,have had A since 9 months,inset day comming soon hmmm i have no vacancies
parent claimed for B since week she was born in April ,i started to get payment in August,
i wrote a letter asking parent to sign stating when hours had changed ,started paying this i kept in file

[kentcfis]

HMRC Contact details here if needed !

http://search2.hmrc.gov.uk/kbroker/hmrc/contactus/search.ladv?sr=0&as=1&cs=ISO-8859-1&sc=hmrc&sf=&sm=0&nh=50&ha=34&tx0=60&fl0=contactid:&tx1=&raction=view

[Lady Haha]

What really worries me about all this is the fact that if they are claiming too much, then tax credits will assume that money is coming to us and then won't we be questioned on the income we are declaring? It will look like we are earning far more than we actually are and how can we prove that they didn't pay us this money?

[onceinabluemoon]

What really worries me about all this is the fact that if they are claiming too much, then tax credits will assume that money is coming to us and then won't we be questioned on the income we are declaring? It will look like we are earning far more than we actually are and how can we prove that they didn't pay us this money?

This worried me too, especially as my income is so low I get tax credits!