Childcare??

[Minnie mouse]

Hi, i was just wondering.... When a parent works they can claim childcare costs?? Does that mean as a childminder i can claim childcare costs for my son? Surely as his taking up one of my places i should be able to claim childcare costs lol? Or am i being mad ? :D

[Chatterbox Childcare]

You have to be employed to claim child care costs if you are talking about Tax credits.

[Ripeberry]

You are mad :laughing:

[Alibali]

Oh, if only!!!:)

[SimplyLucy]

I used a childminder in the summer holidays last year for my own 4 children, just 1 day a week. It gave them a break from the children I mind, plus my daughter was always nagging me because she wanted to go to a childminder!

I claimed the money back though tax credits, 80% of the cost.

I think I might do the same again this summer!

[elainerut]

Hi, i was just wondering.... When a parent works they can claim childcare costs?? Does that mean as a childminder i can claim childcare costs for my son? Surely as his taking up one of my places i should be able to claim childcare costs lol? Or am i being mad ? :D

unforunately not :( i asked that one b4 i stared minding sorry.

[tulip0803]

As Lucy says, unfortunately only if your child is going to another childcare setting that you are paying for. You cannot claim for your own child taking up one of your spaces.

[Minnie mouse]

so i could still claim if i put him in nursery or with another minder? :)

[karenandsmile]

as long as you send your child to another childcare setting you can claim, i do like the idea of sending your own kids off to another child minder in the summer holidays so they get a break from it all

[FizzysFriends]

so i could still claim if i put him in nursery or with another minder? :)

Yes you can do that.

[singlewiththree]

I claim for my DD who is at preschool (she gets the 5 free sessions but stays for lunch so I claim the lunch hour). My DD3 is starting playgroup on Weds and I'm claiming that with tax credits so yes you can :) Love idea of putting your own children with another minder or holiday club! Still have to find the 20% to pay out of my pocket though for 3 children.

[Minnie mouse]

how many hours do you have to work per week before tax credits will pay 80% of childcare costs? :)

[loocyloo]

doh!

just realised that i could have been claiming for DD nursery fees since september! she gets the grant, but stays for longer! does anyone know if i can claim it in retrospect?

a friend and i considered looking after each others children and claiming, but they still count in your numbers !!!

my ds has done a few days of holiday clubs before too, never thought of claiming for them either!!! must do them again!

in that apart from filling out the form each summer to check its all correct, do i just phone them to say things have changed for a couple of weeks?

xxx

[Chatterbox Childcare]

Not wanting to burst your bubble ladies but I thought you had to be EMPLOYED for 16 hours and not self employed. Might be work checking before you have to pay back your tax credits.

Sorry

[SimplyLucy]

It's definatly self empolyed or empolyed, so long as you are working.

You need to be working over 16 hours and you can even claim some childcare if you aren't getting working tax credits, it's always worth asking.

I've claimed childcare cost (80%) whilst being a self empolyed childminder with no problems, last year.

Don't forget to claim the 16 hours working time you don't actually need to have mindeed children for the full 16 hours, add hours on for planning, observations, accounts all the paperwork we have etc etc, I'm sure you'll soon be way over 16 or even 30 hours.

[SimplyLucy]

doh!

just realised that i could have been claiming for DD nursery fees since september! she gets the grant, but stays for longer! does anyone know if i can claim it in retrospect?

a friend and i considered looking after each others children and claiming, but they still count in your numbers !!!

my ds has done a few days of holiday clubs before too, never thought of claiming for them either!!! must do them again!

in that apart from filling out the form each summer to check its all correct, do i just phone them to say things have changed for a couple of weeks?

xxx

Always worth ringing and telling them, they might back date it a little.

I forgot to mention I was working over 30 hours, didn't know there was a bonus for that, they back dated it 90 days.

[loocyloo]

[QUOTE=SimplyLucy;347853]Always worth ringing and telling them, they might back date it a little.

thabks, i will do that!

xxx

[Mollymop]

You can't claim tax credits for yourself being the childminder if your own child! I wish we could. What hours would we tell them? 24 hours a day at £3 an hour?:laughing:

[Lady Haha]

yep, I've claimed too last summer! I put my son in an educational tutor type place to help him catch up on his maths and they were registered for the tax credits people, I think it's just as long as they are Ofsted registered really! I only did it for a month as I did feel like I was cheating as I didn't really need the space he uses in my numbers for any one else, but he really did needthe extra tuition and I couldnt afford the fees, so I only did it for August before he went back to school. But in answer to the original question, yes, you can claim childcare tax credits as long as YOU aren't his childcarer! They have to be with some one else!

The thing that worried me was if the tax credits people asked me to prove I needed the childcare,I wouldn't be able to! But if your genuinely had your maximum number of children for the hols for example and then some one asked you to be their minder, you could get a different childminder for your own child so as to free up that space! And you would have you attendance register to prove it too. Oh, and yes, you do have to be employed or self employed for for 16 hours or more. As I'm full time, I can claim working tax credits too!:D

Phew! Glad I could finally offer advice that I actually am positive about!

[Minstrel]

hmmmm not sure about sending your own child to a CM so you could free up an extra space. Arent you own children already included in numbers regardless of where they are? ie we cant have extra whilst they are at school or nursery. :rolleyes:

[Lady Haha]

hmmmm not sure about sending your own child to a CM so you could free up an extra space. Arent you own children already included in numbers regardless of where they are? ie we cant have extra whilst they are at school or nursery. :rolleyes:

Hmmmm, will have to look into that! I have always thought i could send my son off to spend some time with his dad if I was going to be over my numbers with him here!

[Minstrel]

Hmmmm, will have to look into that! I have always thought i could send my son off to spend some time with his dad if I was going to be over my numbers with him here!

i think you'll find its a no! but i' still pre-reg, what do i know????

[Lady Haha]

wow! I'm all confused now! Because you are pre reg, if anything you are right in the middle of all that training and things like that will have gone right over my head as I never imagined for one second I would have so many of them running around here! If one of the 'experts' here could help out here, I would be really interested to know for definate!! If that were the case, there would never be any genuine need to send your own child to another childminder and therefore never need to claim childcare!

:confused:

[SimplyLucy]

You can't create an extra space by arranging alternative care for your own child.

Even if your own child spends time with his/her dad in the holidays, they still count in your numbers.

[Minstrel]

You can't create an extra space by arranging alternative care for your own child.

Even if your own child spends time with his/her dad in the holidays, they still count in your numbers.

Thanks Lucy!

[Hebs]

there would never be any genuine need to send your own child to another childminder and therefore never need to claim childcare!

:confused:


to give them a break from being around mindees all day, to give them the chance to interact with other children, experience new things/settings

:thumbsup:

[beerheaven]

doh!

just realised that i could have been claiming for DD nursery fees since september! she gets the grant, but stays for longer! does anyone know if i can claim it in retrospect?

a friend and i considered looking after each others children and claiming, but they still count in your numbers !!!

my ds has done a few days of holiday clubs before too, never thought of claiming for them either!!! must do them again!

in that apart from filling out the form each summer to check its all correct, do i just phone them to say things have changed for a couple of weeks?

xxx

I'm pretty certain that you cannot claim the nursery education voucher retrospectively. There is a cut off date for forms every term for that particular term.
Sorry!

[SimplyLucy]

to give them a break from being around mindees all day, to give them the chance to interact with other children, experience new things/settings

:thumbsup:


My own children (4 of them) miss out on loads of things in the holidays because I'm minding. I have 3 siblings 6.30am-2.30pm, long days out to the zoo etc are impossible because of the timings.

When I have the little ones activities such as swimming were a no no.

When they went to a childminder last summer for one day a week they went to the zoo, they went swimming, they did wonderful activites aimed at older children.

They went to the other minder (who has one child herself same as as my DD1, 9 now) on a day where she had no others, she had the 5 older ones only. It gave her daughter older company and they had a wonderful time every wednesday.

I must speak to her about doing the same this summer.

[singlewiththree]

You have to be employed to claim child care costs if you are talking about Tax credits.

I'm claiming child care costs for my children attending preschool lunch times and playgroup and I'm a self employed childminder so you can if they are going to another childcare provider just not yourself :)

[singlewiththree]

i think you'll find its a no! but i' still pre-reg, what do i know????

No your right, which is kind of wrong in a way, me and their dad are separated and they go to their dads once a fortnight and he would do anything other than bring them back, he takes them to work, everywhere he goes rather than say he can't have them so I could in theory work all weekend or the full week they are away but because I have 2 children under 5 I would still only legally be able to have 1 child. I suppose its because I have parental responsibility so could get called if the child was in an emergency where I wouldn't be if the child wasn't mine.

[singlewiththree]

[QUOTE=SimplyLucy;348304]When they went to a childminder last summer for one day a week they went to the zoo, they went swimming, they did wonderful activites aimed at older children.
/QUOTE]

I'm tempted with this myself as my DD's are 7,3,2 and my mindees are 4 and 17mths so as you can imagine my 7yr old was considerably bored this Feb half term as all the activities she wanted to do were too old for the other children so we ended up one day going to a soft play centre as I thought that would suit all of them but my DD was still bored (maybe its her age!). In April she will be in the over 8 numbers so I might ask her if she wants to go the holiday club or childminder where her friends go unless I get some older children before then.

[loocyloo]

I'm pretty certain that you cannot claim the nursery education voucher retrospectively. There is a cut off date for forms every term for that particular term.
Sorry!

the nursery claim for the education grant, i'm not thinking of that, just for the extra hours that she attends, that i pay for!!!

[loocyloo]

well ... i've just rung and spoken to a really nice man!

due to the level of income and the little i pay in fees, i won't get any tax credit payment towards them, BUT, if i was going to, it could have been back dated from last september, as it is within the current 08-09 year!

worth checking though. he said if i was going to pay for holiday childcare, to phone again, as i may be eligible.

xxx

[Lady Haha]

I'm still confused!!:laughing:

The thing is I would like to be able to send my son to another childminder one day a week in the hols as it would give him new experiences etc, but the last thing I need is to be told I have to pay back tax credits! Surely, you can only claim for childcare if you wouldn't be able to do your job without it? Obviously we CAN still do our job whilst caring for children! By the way, I am on your side! I just don't want to claim and the have to pay it all back!