CM Club: I wish I had.......

[Katymac]

a website where I could go in and enter what families paid me for childcare - so that if they claim using my registration number then do a runner they won't get Tax credits to pay for childcare they aren't having (That doesn't make much sense - but I know what I ment)

blimey do people do that?

I would estimate (based on the ones TCO have asked me about) that it happens all the time

I have had at least 7 families (who I have never heard of & certainly never minded for) claim in my name

Yes it happens and quite alot.

It is thousands of pounds worth of Fraud - in my name alone never mind all the other childminders

Its a crazy system that allows people to claim then waits months before checking with the childminder how much they are paying.

We don't need to know how much they are claiming or any of their financial info but it would make sense to me for the parent to have to send a copy of the contract or for the childminder to sign a form to confirm the family has booked the service BEFORE the claim is approved.

I've not had many letters, and all have been genuine but one puzzled me for a while cos the tax office used the mother's maiden name and a first name she doesn't use! So i nearly wrote to say they didn't use my service.

& they only check something like 20% of claims

It is crap

I have not had anyone check mine. I bet some people claim and I don't mind them as well.