To want employer to help with some of my childcare costs??

[cheekymonk]

Hi There
I work for Civil Service and have a 4 year old ds. I work 4 days per week and do 26 hours. DS is at nursery whilst I work.
DH is away on 7 month deployment with navy, no family to help out.
We don't get working tax credits as income too high (supposedly!!)
We both get the vouchers which have saved us some money.
I got promotion in 2007 and ever since I have noticed the odd having to pay extra so I can attend courses on non working days, occasionally stay late and help out with recruitment etc. I knew promotion would mean working harder/giving more which I don't begrudge. I do get paid more obviously so thats fine and to be expected.
I have just paid out and taken it on the chin so far but got another £10 charge on monday as late (after 6 so pay out of hours charge) and the boss I was helping (not usual boss) refused to let me go dead on time despite me saying I needed to. I did think I would make it but due to traffic didn't. I am with same boss tomorrow so will go on dot whether he likes it or not. I had already paid another £18 for the 2 extra hours on that day I had to take so I could help out.
I have worked it all out and have paid £280 over a year due to things like this. Its not a fortune but money we could do with and at the end of the day, I don't go to work to be out of pocket.
I can put a business case to my boss to ask for help with childcare costs. AIBU to do this???
Some could say I took the promotion, I had a child, I married a forces man etc so therefore it is my fault and I should live with it and not expect someone else to pay for my decisions (I'll say it before someone else does!) BUT why should I be discriminated against for being part-time, a mother and having some ambition?

I've read some but not all the posts so sorry if repeating. It's an interesting question. I was in a similar position to you a few years ago when I took on a secondment to a particular project. re overtime - I put my foot down re staying late - I said from the outset it just wasn't an option but I said I was happy to work overtime in the evenings from home when necessary. and that I would do so on the same basis as anyone else (with or without children) on the project (which, in our case, was time off in lieu). I think I got the balance right in doing this - showing willing but explaining clearly (to those who didn;t quite "get" it) what was logistically not do-able. but, on the other hand, not expecting anything extra - effectively asking for reasonable accommodation, to coin a phrase. they'd have been on thin ice to turn me down.

re payments - my then employer had a policy of paying childcare costs incurred as a result of travel, that were over and above what you'd be paying if in the office. when I went abroad we needed 2 extra hours a day of childcare because dh finished work later- so I would claim this (if I'd been single I'd have been able to claim a live in nanny...but I did have pretty good employers). some of the days abroad were overtime and I was paid for it - rather than getting toil. This, rightly imo, meant I couldn;t claim the childcare for the whole day - just the extra costs incurred because of actually being away from home.

yes, there is a different HMRC rule for childcare paid when your employee is travelling on business travel (but don't ask me what it is ).

'Business Travel' in HMRC terms means: Away on a Business Trip from your usual place of work.

As such that could mean at an office 10 miles away from your usual place of work as well as outside UK.

Just read through the posts - very interesting responses.

A woman colleague I have who works part-time is one of the most respected and highly regarded in a department of 50, she is one of only 2 PTers. She works half 9 to half 2 and NEVER stays on later. She is firm about leaving on time and it is one thing she will not bend on. However she is ferociously well-organised and very flexible and amenable in other areas.

Also, I remember in an interview with Nicola Horlick she said that one way as she coped with such a high pressured job and as a mother of so many young children was that she never stayed after half past five. She left on the dot, every day. Didn't harm her career, did it

In response to the OP, yes YABU is you want your employer to fund the extra childcare. You need to say, very firmly albeit very sweetly, that you need to leave by a certain time. You can always take work home (I have always taken work home, made phone calls at home etc when necessary)

[small hijack alert] does that mean that now I'm self employed, if I go to London for the day (my normal place of work being home - 200 miles from London) and I need paid childcare (when normally I'd just wing it with the kids arguing, distracting me, shouting playing guitar hero entertaining themselves like little angels that I can put it on my tax return as a business expense?

YANBU - I'm a civil service employee with two kids and I've had to discuss this with my supervisor to come up with ways I can attend important meetings as I'm going back to work part time after my maternity leave. At the moment we haven't come up with a solution but I expect I'll have to eat some of the cost myself although I'm really hoping my nursery might be flexible about trading slots. I've got a pretty senior position though, if I hadn't been promoted I would not be willing to do this (my DH is offshore often so I can't rely on him for childcare).

The problem with the civil service is that being in a reasonably senior position doesn't mean a great salary - I'm at the bottom of my pay band and I don't take hom much after two kids in nursery.

Also, Nekabu tried to make the case that YABU because we shouldn't discriminate against people without kids. Well one of my civil service colleagues gets money to pay for her pet-sitting when she has to be away for work (she's single). So asking for the same thing for your children is not unreasonable.

abdnhiker, if one of your colleagues gets money for her pet-sitting if she's away then of course your colleagues who incur extra nursery charges should have theirs paid for too. Like for like and fair for all. I asked if the OP's colleagues would get paid for that sort of thing though. If they don't then I think it would be unfair for the OP to get money for costs when her colleagues don't.

I would check your contract & family friendly policy very carefully, you may well be entitled to claim for some it.