Paying for child care during COVID

[Peter1977]

Hi can anyone give me some advice please, during this time I am still working but my wife has been furloughed as we have 3kids at home and working from home was impossible. We have a just turned 1year old who usually gives to a child minder and sometimes her sister who is 6goes there also after school. We didn't feel comfortable sending them to the child minder as wife was home and it just adds more risk.
The child minder has now got in touch and says she expects 100% pay during this time even though she hasn't had the kids and won't until all this calms down. She is a lovely lady and great at her job and we don't want to fall out so it's very awkward,but everyone I talk to seems to only be paying a retaining fee to keep the place and there child minder is then claiming.
Please help on this very tricky situation.

CommunistLegoBloc I'm female thank you in a loving marriage,try not to judge.

Why Peter then?!

Personal reasons

It doesn't matter what your contract says, under the consumer act if she is not open cannot expect payment for a service that she isn't providing.
She is perfectly within her rights to ask you to pay or pay a retainer or give notice for whatever reason she wishes and you are also entitled to ask for a refund for the services she hasn't provided you with.

If she is open and willing to provide childcare, then it's a different matter.

You need to tell her that you're not willing to pay in full. I would wait until Monday though as we'll have a better idea after BJ's speech what's in store.

Okay Peter, sure you're female. Absolutely.

Your wife is being paid by her employer if she is furloughed. The employer may well be claiming some or all of that back from the government, but your wife is not being paid by the government. She’s being paid by her employer. For doing nothing (of benefit to her employer). You aren’t helping your argument by insisting that this isn’t true!!

We had the same thing with nursery asking for full fees. When they thought the was getting government help they changed it to 50% and they refer to it as a contribution and have said if anyone is struggling due to their own circumstances to discuss with them. I am a keyworker but my husband WFH so we chose to keep her home to reduce risk. The government has changed what they're offering nurseries now, this possibly effects childminders as well. I'm giving 50% because I love the nursery and my daughter does, I want them to be able to reopen, we are all in a situation we could never imagine. I feel comfortable paying the half.

There have been other threads about this. And people hsve different opinions. Personally I would not be happy to pay full feees for a service I didn't receive. A retainer would be a reasonable compromise. Around 20% from you would be fair and she needs to claim her self employed furlough from the government.

Thanks all again for the advice,we are due to meet her later this morning for a chat (at distance of course,) at least we have more information on it all now. Will see if we can come to some agreement.

@malovitt I have only been set up for three years. The last year I've earned £1500 a month. But that doesn't count as the qualifying years are 2016-2019. 2017-2019 I only earned around £800 a month because my own children counted in my ratio so I wasn't allowed to work more. I was on maternity leave the previous year.

Expenses are high setting up a business and I never earned much to begin with, so the amounts I will be getting will be very small compared to what my earning potential for April May and June is currently.

@malovitt I have never charged for my own holidays or my own sick days. If the child is on holiday or poorly then they still pay. I also have ongoing training that I paid for in instalments that were still due over April and May. You seem to assume that all childminders are the same, and we are not.

@scarfladysbag I apologise I tagged another poster when I answered your questions. No I earn that much now before expenses. I didn't earn that much in my first two years of trading- max £800 a month. I don't charge for bank holidays my holiday my sick days or my families sick days. I take children when they're poorly and actually we think one child did have cv-19 and he brought it into my home and gave it to my son who infected my husband. But we couldn't get tested at the time so the insurance company won't pay out. So I don't think I'm awful for asking for a voluntary payment for still working for each child every day sending home all the activities and toys I own. I hope that the government grant will be more than £250 a month but based on my tax returns, that is all I expect.

@ZoChan
'You seem to assume that all childminders are the same, and we are not'

Oh I know all childminders are not the same. I am a childminder myself and have been for the last 15 years. Consequently I know a great number of other childminders and every single one of them charge in full, some up to six weeks annually, for their own holidays, despite being self employed and enjoying all the advantages that brings. So now many of those same childminders are bleating that their contracts are unenforceable and parents don't have to pay them anything. Maybe they should have thought of that when they were busy taking parents for a ride.

If you don't charge for your own holiday or a child when they are off sick then you operate in a similar way to me and you are one of the more unusual of our profession.

All sorted in here now,we went down for a chat and agreed that she will be claiming in June so we will give her 20%to keep our place and she is happy with that,was all very good,txs can be read so many different ways.
Thanks again all those who gave positive advice.
And to all those others who have judged myself and my wife in such a sexist way,have a look at yourself,you must be very unhappy to be so bitter.