...fed up at having to pay childminder full

[Tinkerbellone]

My child minder stopped working two weeks ago because of worries about corona virus.
She or her partner have no health conditions.
I am a key worker.
She always charges half rate over school holidays even though she doesn't have my children.
She is still charging me Full Rate even though she not working or having my children at all.
I know she has a business to run, but this doesn't seem fair to me; I could understand half pay.
As a single parent I'm struggling to get my children to and from school now. I'm relying on friends and/or my children walking on their own after I've left for work in the morning they are 11 & 8.
Has anyone else experienced this?

Just because she's worked for you for 11 years doesn't make this a friendship. I'd offer 50% and is she says no withdraw your child.

"My Childminder doesn't pay for ANY of those - what she charges is 100% profit"

You seem to know an awful lot about her finances

We are pretty lucky here in australia that the government is giving free childcare for children that are currently enrolled in childcare. It's such a massive bill off our plates.

Have you spoken to her?

Are you still being paid in full?

Why not call your childminder and suggest a 50% retainer?

@FillyBilly - but you won’t be incurring a lot of those expenses if you don’t have any children to look after? Apart from subscriptions you can’t cancel I can’t see how the end money you have to live off will be that much different.

Normal people can not claim for household expenses, cars and food.
Childminders have claimed these for many years, reducing their profits.
The thing is now the govenment are going on profit after expenses, so childminders are now not getting these paid for when the self employed element is paid in June.
I think people need to decide if they want to find a new child minder, or if they can afford pay towards keeping their child's place open.

@Tp93 - Australia are only paying the services 50% though so you'll be luck if you still have a nursery to go to in 3 months

She said that all her parents are key workers and she doesn't want to risk the virus coming into her home. Which I understand. I just don't understand the full pay

Then she can't charge you. These childminders and nurseries are cheeky fuckers of the highest order imo.

The self employed package can be brutal for relatively new self employed - DH used to childmind and in the first couple of years the profit was very low due to buying equipment, toys resources etc. Same for many small businesses, lots of people who have become profitable in the last couple of years are going to take a big hit.

We now run a larger childcare business and have asked parents to pay 50% (term time only retainer and we're anticipating being closed through to August -scottish terms- with year round costs still coming out) because at the moment naff all is coming through from the govt.

I do however think that a CM asking for 100% whilst refusing to take your child when she is allowed to is taking the piss a bit. We're not allowed to open, we can't do anything about it. She can open to her parents but is choosing not to. She also won't be incurring some of the usual costs of minding- insurance etc need maintained but activity resources, food, travel costs et should all be down.

Think of a contract like a piece of paper it has four corners you cannot go outside the four corners by charging you full price in the holiday she has in effect broken the contract therefore you can terminate her

You might value her but its clear she does not value you

"We are pretty lucky here in australia that the government is giving free childcare for children that are currently enrolled in childcare. It's such a massive bill off our plates."

I've been reading accounts from some very unhappy Australian childminders who are being forced to subsidise that free childcare.

If she is getting payment in June for being self employed but is struggling now, could you maybe pay but in exchange for credits when she reopens? Might get complex, but she would have money to tide her over until June, and you wouldn't be paying for nothing.

She's allowed to continue looking after the children of essential workers. You'd like her to look after your children to enable you to continue with your essential job.

She's chosen that her job is too risky and she won't be doing it. But she would like you to continue paying her anyway.

Imagine a healthy bus driver/nurse/supermarket worker quitting their job because it's too risky at the moment but demanding that their employer pay them anyway.

"Normal people can not claim for household expenses, cars and food.
Childminders have claimed these for many years, reducing their profits."

We can only claim for expenses used for our business. HMRC makes that very clear.

I would chat and ask her which suits her best -

1. To take in the children she is asking payment for

Or

1. To have the 20% difference from me as she is getting 80% from the Government

She cant have all the money and none of the work !!

I'm not sure about England (if that's where you are) but in Scotland we have been advised that both parents should be key workers. Most of my children were pulled out of the service before lock down anyway, and all my parents have kept paying me full, but I only asked for half. I'm am extremely grateful to my parents because right know I'm not sure what I would have done as dp can't work either and is also self employed. I will be offering a lot of free babysitting for those parents when we are over all this. I do know a few childminders who are asking for full fee through this. I can see why, but I didn't feel comfortable asking for that. Sorry no help to you OP. If you are struggling to pay, you could maybe speak to her about it?

Childminder here and I'm not charging any of my families anything until I am allowed to open again.
OP how can you know that she or someone in her family doesn't have a underlying health condition which would make it unsafe for her to continue to operate? I don't know of any other job in the country where people are being asked to bring potentially high risk customers into their home? IMO she is out of order expecting you to pay, however some of the replies on here are awful.

Also CM's aren't raking it in, I don't know any local to me who are running an empire.
I have closed my home to others to ensure the safety of my family and I will not be explaining my personal circumstances to customers as it is frankly none of their business.

End contract re join afterwards x

CM can do no wrong on here!

My CM has been looking after my kids for years, my kids love her and I have always been ok with the fact that she charges for her holidays, charges for every place she’s ever taken my kids, charges for meals. The fact that I pay her over £1000 a month. I didn’t mind at all even though others were telling me they didn’t have to do those things for their childminders. Because she is like another grandmother to my children.

I now have no income as I am self employed and she is asking me to still pay her full fees. Actually told me initially, not asked, well aware of my situation, I was crying at the last pick up. I said I can’t afford it and she was abrupt with me, told me if I didn’t pay full my kids wouldn’t be guaranteed a place with her after this. I’d like to add shes 58, has paid off her mortgage and her kids are grown up. I said about the 80% and she didn’t really reply. I am sure she would have charged me and claimed that on top, even if it isn’t much no one should be profiting from this.

Safe to say my kids won’t be going back. I’m pretty sure I don’t have to pay notice, legally either as she’s shut. What she did was greedy and I see her in a totally different light now.

I offered to pay my cm something, as we still have some money coming in. My kids adore her and I'd hate to see her go out of business. The government SE rescue package doesn't kick in until June which is a fair way away. I'm paying her 1/3 of the usual total. I'd think charging full whack a bit much especially considering you're a key worker and do really need her services.

What does your contract say about closures OP?

My CM is still open. We don't need her thankfully. We are still paying her the normal rate as DH and I are both still receiving our normal pay. I think this is fair.

If she was closed or our own financial circumstances had changed, I would negotiate with her.

These are people looking after your DC at the end of the day. If you can't have a conversation with them about this, then you need to think about how the professional relationship is working.

@Missesmiss did you have a contract that set out if those things were payable? Of course you have to pay for your child's meals! If the fees were over £1000 than that was what the fees were!
At the beginning of this we as childminders were advised to continue to charge our normal rates, even after the 80% was announced we were waiting for further clarification from out supporting bodies. That was probably why she didn't reply at the time. You have no idea what she was intending to do.

The 80% doesn't cover the basic bills for many of us as it is averaged over the past three years and earnings can have changed dramatically.
Also you have no idea about her financial situation - Imagine if companies decided to furlough people based upon their preconcieved notion of personal circumstances! You are being ridiculous saying she is being greedy, why don't you actually communicate with the childminder and ask her to clarify some of the poorly made assumptions you have shared here?

I think that charging the full amount is absolutely ridiculous

I can understand that she is concerned about risk of infection. However, she is choosing to close and therefore I don’t think that she should get the full whack.
If you really want to keep her, I would renegotiate and offer fifty percent. If she refuses to take fifty percent, I would withdraw your child

Thank you very one - Lots of differing views.
Someone asked if there was anyone in her family who was at risk - not here isn't. She is an excellent childminder who goes above and beyond.

I completely understand her not wanting to have potentially infected children in her home.
It's the paying full I am thinking isn't fair.

I don't want to fall out with her about money; I am receiving a full wage but I am still working.
I don't like the fact that Now my children have to walk to and from school and cross 4 roads. They're very capable & I know roads are quieter. It's just another worry isn't it.

@FillyBilly if you're claiming all of these expenses before your profits, then doesn't that mean you're used to only earning £30 a week? Those expenses were coming out and never saw your bank account before. If your profits were that low to begin with then that's just how much you earn. Unless you've had more disposable income available to you that you've wanted to go through as expenses and now you're unhappy you can't claim it from the government.