Is my childminder ripping me off?

[Katie0907]

She wants me to pay her the full rate for time she was off sick. Is this right? I'm annoyed as I had to take time off work and lose pay.

wow..That is expensive.If I am charging for part time I would charge £3.50 an hour, but I wouldn't charge that for a week, as it would work out really expensive.

Thats for 2 days/week.
And I live in the south where we're all millionaires, dontcha know

Self-employed people can insure against loss of income due to illness. Guardian Money article - This Is Money article
Cost of such insurance however is likely to be high.

Maybe I should move down south!

I already pay higher than norm on my contents insurance just for being a childminder, and i have ncma insurance too.

Thank you for the info. I haven't met up with her to sign contracts yet so it's nice to have a few pointers. I'm only going to use the CM in term time and fortunately she takes other children in the holidays.

I totally agree that childcare workers are not paid well. That's not the discussion here though.

My point is that as a self-employed person you cannot expect to be paid when sick or on holiday - that is the very nature of being self-employed. But as funnypeculiar said, you know the disadvantages when you choose to be self-employed and you manage them.

You misunderstand me I think - I am not arguing that childminders are not providing a good service, I am arguing that if you choose to be self-employed you have to make arrangements so that if you are sick/on holiday you are not out of pocket.

If you have parents willing to sign a contract with you agreeing to pay you whilst you are unavailable for work then you are onto a winner, but it shouldn't be standard in my opinion. If you have to pay a childminder for her annual leave, then pay another to cover for her then you probably end up seriously out of pocket. And not all of us have the option of taking our holiday at the same time as a childminder.

Personally, if it was me... I would only charge you for the term time,but some cm might ask for a retainer over the summer hols (it is 6 wks) I always end up with lots of kids in the hols and not many term time (because the children have been with me since 6mths old or so and i still have them even though they've started school)

But how can cm 'manage' being self employed if parents don't want to pay higher fees?It's not a case of adding more children, it just isn't safe or pratical to have more than 3 or 4, as well as cm own children

It's probably not that parents don't want to pay higher fees, more that they can't afford to! Not all employers offer childcare vouchers (mine don't) and as I have 3 children I need the most affordable option - not necessarily the cheapest, but the one that is most value for money. Paying for childcare when I don't need it/it isn't available is not a viable option for me.

The lovely nursery dcs attend is cheaper than using a CM & I can use childcare vouchers & get a sibling discount. Quality of care is the no 1 priority but there is no doubt that cost is a factor too. Tbh I would pay more for the nursery care (esp if it went into wages), it's that good.

I had 2 choices of CM for this Sept, one who charged a summer holiday retainer and one who didn't, which for us makes a big difference.

Fortunately I had some good advice on here as to who to choose and went with the non-retainer CM who is very motherly which is better for ds. The other was better at selling/explaining what she did (& better Ofsted), more up-to date with professional issues and knew everyone, but was not as warm and a bit too managing (knows every-one's business and kept nobbling me for the PTA!).

Self employed people can set up their own scheme and it is quite simple. There are two ways of doing it, one where you don't need to be drawing a monthly income and another where you are a limited company.

If you really want the details I will find them, but two of my SE parents have set up the schemes.

ooh, really alibubbles - fantastic
I'd have to be option a (not drawing monthly income)

If you can vaguely point me in the right direction, that's be wonderful.

oh yes Alibubbles, please do detail how self-employed people setup a childcare voucher scheme. Start a new thread about it if possible.

And please keep bumping it if you do start up a separate thread - will keep my eyes open

if i did this job for the money, i wouldnt do it..............it is hard work, 7 till 6 most days, with no lunch hour.but, its really not about that, this is my career, i run a sucessful business, and i love the children i care for. i respect the parents, after all, they have to work aswell. i am self employed, as i say, i do now charge for holidays but i would never ever charge for my sickness. it is unfair.

Unfort as CM are SE, you gen wont be paid for sick days or holidays BUT if you have a contract which is signed and it states that CM gets paid when ill or 1/2 pay for holidays etc, then you cant moan, as you signed it in the first place - read contract more carefully in future

my hubby is se, and when we have a holiday it costs us double, as cost of holiday AND two weeks with not his salary coming in - earns more than me as a nanny

same when he was ill, had 3 weeks off due to operation, again no pay

eats stale bread and drinks water

Surely he would have been entitled to stat sick pay?

stat sick pay is about £80 a week, he earns gen £200 a day

not sure is SE can claim stat sick pay?

This is the info I have on childcare vouchers.

If you work for yourself through a limited company then you can set up a childcare voucher scheme. You can either pay yourself vouchers in addition to any salary you're drawing (even if you aren't drawing any!) or, if you pay yourself enough, you can have vouchers through salary sacrifice.

What?s the difference between a "Salary Sacrifice"
scheme and an ?Addition to Salary" scheme?

In a ?Salary Sacrifice? scheme, employees agree to reduce their existing salary in exchange for receiving childcare vouchers. The employer and employee enter into a Salary Sacrifice Agreement and the employer then amends the payroll to reflect the change in salary. Salary Sacrifice schemes need to be approved by the Inland Revenue.

In an ?Addition to Salary? scheme, employees receive
childcare vouchers on top of their salary. The vouchers are still tax-freeand NI-free but, unlike Salary Sacrifice schemes, there is no need to seek Inland Revenue approval. As long as the vouchers are kept within the prescribed limits (£55 a week or £243 a month), they do not have to be declared on P11D forms.

For owners of small businesses who are able to amend
their salary as they wish, Salary Sacrifice schemes and Addition to Salary schemes can provide identical savings.

Hope this helps,

Thanks very much for looking that out, alibubbles - sadly not a Ltd comp at the mo, but may be in the future, so will bear that in mind

See this message from Danbro Accounting. They say that it saves money against corporation tax, thus why you need to be a Ltd company.

Thanks nannynick

My CM charges when she is sick, when my child is sick, when she goes on holiday, when we go on holiday, FULL RATE. It?s in the contract but cheeky I think.

leo69, are you married?