Childcare vouchers

[GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat]

Does anyone not accept them?

I hate them. Seriously considering saying I will no longer accept them because I’m so sick of not being paid on time. I know it’s the parents that control when they send them but with pay days and the long transfer time, it’s a nightmare.

Any experiences?

I tell my parents they have to plan in advance if they want to use vouchers and use them from the previous pay day. I don't have any trouble getting paid on time. Tax free childcare though .........

Thanks. I have told them that, but every month I’m still chasing. At least if I chased and they were paying by bank transfer I would get it instantly.

I haven’t had the pleasure of TFC yet!

Late payment fees? Refuse care until you're paid?

My CM doesn't take them for that exact reason. She is always full so doesn't seem to have a detrimental effect on her business.

I have late payment fees in my contract. I haven’t charged them yet but I should.

I hope I’d be the same Tulips, there’s lots of work around here.

I think you need to send a very clear communication outlining late fees that will be implemented from X date (maybe allow 1 month grace so everyone can get sorted) for any fees whether they are direct payments of vouchers that are received after 1st of the month. I would name the providers who are coming in late (this way you aren't naming individuals but they will know it's them!) and suggest that any parents using those schemes will need to amend their payment date immediately or you will have to reconsider whether to accept vouchers from those schemes.

No doubt the parents blame the company but I'll bet threat of removing the service and they'll soon sort it out

Your parents need to be more organised to ensure you are paid on time. I accept childcare vouchers and have never had a problem. I think you need to start charging late fees and parents will soon get the message.

I completely agree! I’m losing the love for this job...

The lead time for voucher payments is a nuisance, but in a business context it’s not a big deal. Apart from anything else, you get exactly what you signed up to.

Tax fre childcare can be a pain as, unlike having a CV account, you can’t log in and see if a pay is pending. You have to take the client's work that they’ve sent the payment, then twiddle your thumbs which HMRC get around to processing it, and the time involved can vary (or occasionally fail completely.)

Late fees are something of a paper tiger if a client wants to challenge them.

IMHO late fees and withdrawal of care are rather extreme measures which should be an absolute late resort. There are far better, more businesslike ways of handling cash flow issues, without risking your reputation like that.

Nothing surprises me any more, but I still find it odd that despite all the talk of 'professionalising' childcare, much of the industry continues to operate in a bubble, oblivious to more normal business practices and the importance of public perceptions.

What your suggestion in my situation then?

And as you can see I haven’t so far charged late fees or even mentioned withdrawal of care. But I can’t pay my own bills when they aren’t meeting their end of the contract.

Georgie, is it just the vouchers that are the problem?

No it’s just one issue. Even bank transfers are late but at least when they do remember it’s instant.

Do you charge in advance?

You need to get tough and charge late payment fees.

I use vouchers to pay my childminder. I know they take 5 days to process so I send them by the 23rd of the month to ensure she has them by the 1st when payment is due. If I didn’t send them on time I would completely accept a late fee as it would be my mistake and it’s her business.

@itsaboojum you do realise that CV/TFC is of no benefit whatsoever to the childminder don't you?

I'm really struggling to see how this is an example of a child carer lacking professionalism? Done correctly and after repeated attempts at asking nicely, I would say it is absolutely the right and professional thing to do parents but would be interested to hear how you would do it.

Agree @purpleprickles

We use TFC, and only get invoiced on 27/28 of month with money due on first.

It takes a couple of days to go from my bank to the TFC account and then a couple of days to go to cm.

So I work out in advance eggs the invoice will be abd transfer to the TFC account. That way I know she is paid on time

Yes in advance. Though this week I will be working in arrears due to non payment.

The lead time for voucher payments is a nuisance, but in a business context it’s not a big deal. Apart from anything else, you get exactly what you signed up to.

And this is exactly why I’m considering no longer accepting them. It is of no benefit to me whatsoever.

I know it will vary with the different voucher schemes but can't the parents set up automatic payment through the schemes?
We do that and the childminder is always paid on time. I can't imagine this is a feature only present in our particular voucher schemes. There's no long transfer time - the payment is there the very next day.

I use childcare vouchers for a nursery and last month with Christmas I completely forgot to process them. I was one day late with the payment but I felt awful so i called and explained. It’s just rude and the impact on a childminder is even greater than a nursery

If you can sustain your business without them, then stop taking them. Don't see why you should go through the hassle of chasing and late payment fees et al if you can actually have plenty of clients who don't need them.

you do realise that CV/TFC is of no benefit whatsoever to the childminder don't you?

I am fully aware of how TFC/CV work, having used CVs for some time now and TFC since its (rather shaky) inception.

It is not true to say they are of no benefit whatsoever to the childminder. Just to be clear, both schemes provide a direct benefit to the client and, in so doing, can represent an indirect benefit to the CM. This is not merely splitting hairs. It can result one childcare provider having a market advantage over another, and therefore being a more or less attractive to parents.

Like any other business, each childcare provider, you, me and Georgie have to balance the relative advantages/disadvantages and decide whether it's worth taking part in such schemes. There will always be lots of other factors to consider, of course.

One thing to make clear from the start. I am in no way condoning or excusing consistently late payments. However, we need to see things in a wider business context if we wish to lay claim to being serious about the business aspect of childcare.

For the vast majority of small businesses that use an invoice system, late payments are a fact of life. In most cases, they are potentially more damaging to small businesses than to CMs, due to the sums involved, the degree of lateness, and the fact that many businesses (unlike CMing) run on a knife-edge, kept going by a succession of bank loans which means their cash flow problems are an ever-present existential threat.

With a few exceptions, the majority of late payments to CMs are late by a few days, maybe a couple of weeks in some cases. Most small businesses would absolutely love to have that sort of problem. Most business invoices are settled after 30-90 days (if at all).

Legally/technically, most 'late' CV payments are not, in fact, late: the parents submit them on time, but the CV company and the bank introduce a time lag in crediting the CM's bank. That's not the client's fault, and they should not be penalised for it.