fees

[jake]

A friend of mine wants me to look after her 2 yr old from 7.30am till 4.30pm,and her four year old before and after school until 4.30pm.She doesnt want me to have them for 12 weeks during the summer as shes a student and cant claim for when shes not at uni.This means im losing quite a lot of money and may not be able to fill the spaces when im not minding them.The school that her 4 yr old goes to is also out of my way.Iv told her that i will have to adjust her hourly rate to make up for the 12 weeks when she cant pay me,shes not happy about this and says that tax credit will laugh at her,but she told me that she can claim up to 85 percent as shes a student!Iv explained about my expenses like food,petrol ect.I dont really know what to say to her.What information do tax credits ask childminders for as she said that she wants me to sign her form and a break down of costs.would be grateful for any advice......jake x

[pinkbutterfly]

I'm in the same boat as you. You can charge an inflated rate for when you have them and not charge in the holidays. Tax credits are just interested in how much she's paying you and how many hours of childcare she needs to cover her working/studying plus traveling time.
What does she need the break down of the cost for? Tax credits are not interested in this sort of thing. If I were you I'd refuse to break my cost down as it's really none of her business but it's between you and the taxman when the time to pay the tax comes. Because how are you going to break all the cost down? ... you'd have to include everything like the use of the house, water, electricity, stationery, any training you take, insurance etc ... it's not just food and petrol... this would be ridiculous.
It's always tricky with friends ... Good luck

[Pipsqueak]

Why not do what I am doing -

work out the price for 38 weeks
work out the price for holiday periods - minusing out your holidays.
add the two prices together then divide by 12 - the 'higher rate' will then reflect that price during the holidays when you get no money iyswim.

My client's college won;t pay holiday retainer fee either so thats the only way round it I could do it.

[oneofeach]

Tax credits have never contacted me about what I charge or even who I mind.

If in doubt ring tax credits help line and ask them what info they would need.

[huggableshelly]

I have been contated by tax credits before.
all they asked was how many hours and the weekly fee.

main thing that anoyed me was parent was claiming £140 a wk, only had to pay £62.00 a wk but often failed to pay me due to no money, car needs fixing, have to buy food and so on. parent was not happy when her money was stopped OOPS!

[pinkbutterfly]

Pipsqueak so in summary you have a different price for a term time only contract? How much higher does it work out per hour if you don't mind me asking?

[jake]

Thankyou everyone for your advice,i figured out that the higher rate would be slightly more than 23% of what your hourly rate is.I think this is quite acceptable and i have said that i would reduce the total weeks bill slightly as im going to be having both her children....jake:)

[Chatterbox Childcare]

Tax credits don't pay for students - the uni or college normally do and in arrears - be warned.

[angeldelight]

Good advice from everyone

Just wanted to add that make sure you start the way you mean to go on

It can be great working with friends to start with but sometimes they can take advantage

Make sure you are aware that college usually makes the payments for students and you can wait weeks for them to pay you a lump sum - they will not pay for times a child is sick either or on holiday
So if your friend is in the habit of taking time off from college then be aware that for those days you would not be paid

Make sure your friend knows all the rules and that she will be treated the same as any other parent

Good luck

Angel xx

[jake]

Thanks for that angel as i was not aware of that,i will have to ask her how she will pay me in either of those situations. xx

[crazyhazy]

I've recently had a mindee where the parent was at college and they paid my fees. They paid me at the end of the month in arrears, straight into my account, they paid me regardless of whether the child attended or not, so if they were sick etc I still got paid. I think the only time they wouldn't have paid me is during holidays and if the parent wasn't turning up to college. She had to hand a form in each month signed by me and her, along with her tutors in order fo me to get paid. I still got paid when she had study days though so wasn;t in college and didn;t always bring the mindee to me.

[Goatgirl]

Hi Jake,
hopefully this won't happen to you, but I had a little one start with me last sept, her mum was at college. I charged a high rate to make up for term time only, being paid in arrears etc, but although the little one was being dropped off with me, it turned out the mum wasn't attending college after the first day or two, so they wouldn't pay me at all :(, and i didn't find out until she'd stopped coming to me (no notice) and I tried to invoice the college.

I'd just be careful and try to cover what you would do in all scenarios. It can be tricky to work with friends as they expect favours sometimes but at least you know she won't just disappear on you :)

good luck, hope it works out well for everyone.