Anyone else paid by a third party?

[MaryPoppinsMagic]

I am a childminder, i have just started a thread in AIBU but wanted to see if anyone over here has any experience of being paid by a third party?

aibu thread

I have had grandparents paying my bills. I don't mind who pays, as long as I get my money.

hsmmgetting paid seems to be the problem

I get payments from colleges, care to learn and 2 different councils, don't ever expect the money to be paid on time, some do some don't. I usually have to wait a month after invoice with the councils, the college still haven't approved the funding for one mum who started a month ago but it will be paid eventually. Care to learn will pay direct when thats all sorted. It will all get paid eventually, if you can't afford to pay your bills without the college money then don't take her on because if she misses a couple of days at college she may lose her funding leaving you without payment.
Perhaps look on her as an extra and get yourself some other mindees that pay with vouchers or cash.

lesstalk that is interesting to know, so if she doesnt go some days she will loose funding?

I cannot afford to not be paid in advance, i have to pay bills and survive to.

Think based on your info i am seriously going to have to review the situation, do i have grounds to give notice?

My view is that your contract is with the mum, not with the third party. You therefore should have nothing to do with the third party - no correspondence with them, nothing at all. Your contract is with the mum and she needs to be making payments under that contract as per the contract terms.

Problem though is that if the mum isn't getting the money from the college then she may not have the money available to pay you. If you don't provide care, the college won't pay her the funds.

However you are a business and you need to have the incoming in. Whilst you may be able to delay payment a bit, you won't be able to delay it much as you have your own bills to pay.

Giving notice due to non-payment I feel is fine. Not sure legally what the situation is but I can't see why someone should provide care when payment isn't being made as per the contractual agreement.

I feel you can give notice... thus giving a little bit of time for the mum to come up with the payment. Then once notice period has expired you no longer provide care and you apply using small claims court procedure for recovery of the debt.

Students should in my view be able to access a student loan which would enable them to pay up front for costs they incur to do their course, so including things like childcare. The college can then provide funding, which is used to payback the student loan.

I guess that is not however how it works. Maybe the whole funding system needs looking at by the powers that be, as currently it seems to me that childcare providers are taking the hit for delays in payments. Who is in charge of that payment system? Write to your MP perhaps to see if questions can be asked in the House about how the college funding system and how you are finding it does not work in practice.

nannynick,

i am thinking of contacting the NCMA for some legal advice, do they deal with this type of thing?

I have no idea as I'm not a member. I would hope their legal advice line could offer advice on all sorts of issues, particularly things to do with the contract assuming you are using one of their pre-printed contracts.

nannynick often when being paid by funding it gets paid directly into your bank account so you do actually have to deal with whoever is funding the place. The money doesn't always come from the college, if the student is under age 19 then care to learn will be funding the place hence it has to go through someone else. The money is also reliant on the student attending college for a certain ammount of hours.
The college and funding will often not pay upfront incase the student stops attending college.
The contract signed with the parent is useless when trying to get funded money, I would in this case ask for a deposit from mum which will be returned on the funded money being received so you won't lose out.
One of the other problems with colleges is that sometimes depending on the course they will only fund up to £3 per hour, ive had to try to double it with one child to cover the place, and the other problem is the funding is term time only so remember to try to up your costs to cover the place.

if someone is having their childminding fees met by a college, how does the childminder make sure they are paid in full even if the person drops out of college?

So the contract with the parent is useless? Is there any contract with the funding provider? If they are not paying when the money is due, then what can the childcare provider do?

Sounds to me as though all childcare providers should avoid this sort of payment system like the plague. Why should a childcare provider work for free? Who is responsible for the system... can it be changed.

What about student loans? Can the student not get a loan to pay the money until the payment comes from the college?

i have someone coming over this afternoon who is saying that the fees will be paid by college.

How do I find out if the college is going to cover the fee in full rather than just £3 per hour of it?

paula it may be best to ask the parent to get the college to confirm it.

if I am honest I will not take another parent who is having the fees covered by the college as the stress is just too much!

Where abouts are you? If you are near me I can explain how this college have done it

I am in Herts (St Abans) so the college would be Oaklands

Ah, nope not near me.

The college asked me to invoice them for the term and they pay into your bank account, it would be best to get the full hours from the parent and a deposit just incase.

However like my thread I am having a lot of problems with them. I wouldn't take on another like it.

I have been paid by the local college and have had few problems, I invoiced them straight away with an advance invoice and when it wasn't paid I phoned and got the name of the person in college finance, explained my situation that I was relying on the money and from there on I was paid in advance everytime I sent an invoice.

They cannot pay you though if the student stops attending she was very clear of that and your contract is with the student not the college but I did my usual NCMA contract (thankfully didn't have any problems) and laid it out as if the student was paying me, so I would hope the NCMA could help as it's still a legally signed contract.