Child with disability

[ManicMum]

Hello

I am caring for a child with autism. The parent tried to obtain extra payment for me but social worker told her she would just have to claim through tax credits system as per everyone else. Another childminder friend gets children from social work system and they pay her double time direct (I think it may be some sort of respite service but just day care). I am caring for this child as parent going to work and not for respite purposes. So I am charging £3.75 hour. Although the child is not too difficult to look after indoors, going out is quite hard. Child walks off, doesn't tell me where he's going (he's 14), and I have 3 children myself. It is obviously a lot more responsibility. He also has a physical impairment that I must be aware of. Although I am not going to stop minding him, I feel I am being taken advantage of somewhat - not by the parent but by the system. It seems unfair that tax credits are saying I should be paid the same for more responsibility. Does anyone have any experience of this? I am in Scotland if that makes any difference.

thanks

[jadavi]

I also used to care for a child with fairly aggressive autisim (meaning he sometimes attacks people so needs to be one to one)
She does get an allowance for him that she could spend on childcare but she chooses not to. She has stopped with me but know she has the option to use my one to one service which is £7.50 an hour not £4 as I cant have anyone else at the same time.

[ManicMum]

is that a specific childcare allowance or DLA or something like that?

Interesting!!

[jadavi]

No it comes with her single mum benefitsnd is yo spend as she wants. I think it is 70 a week

[Pipsqueak]

Ok - there are some payments that can come from places like social services that are for certain families.
I care for children via the 2 yr old scheme and get an 'enhanced' rate.
It is also noted that if a child is taking up more than one space (ie it would not be practicial to take on other children because this one child requires more care) then a higher rate is paid.

You aren't being paid 'additional or enhanced' rates because the parent needs to apply for them IF she (the child) is entitled to them. You cannot apply for them. And I am pretty sure tax credits don't deal with it.
As the parent of a disabled child the parent should be accessing certain benefits (I presume) such as disability living allowance (I think its called)

Not all parents are entitled to or are able to get themselves/children on specific schemes.

[ManicMum]

thank you for that. I know some parents have to battle to get what they're due. Just seems unfair system whereby some childminders are getting extra and others aren't.

[onceinabluemoon]

isn't it considered discrimination to charge more for a child who has additional needs?

[Pipsqueak]

isn't it considered discrimination to charge more for a child who has additional needs?

There is an argument that says that yes, however many social service departments (and disability associations) recognise the fact that IF (and this is the crux of it) IF a child needs more of your time so that effectively you cannot fill your other spaces then you can charge a higher rate.

More often than not the rate is already decided by social services.

This is IF the placement is through social services or a scheme.

However, it IS unacceptable to charge more purely because the child is disabled or additional needs.
Because we are S/E we CAN charge whatever we like

The OP must consider as well that the care of an over 8's child must not negatively impact upon the care of the younger children (I am assuming the OP is in England and falls under the EYFS).