Childminder or nanny? This is all so confusing and complicated!

[Lcautious]

Hi everyone,

I have a slightly complicated situation but by experience of these forums they'll be someone somewhere who has experienced something v similar or worse!

I am returning to work in Jan 2009, my son is nearly 7 months now but will be 10 months by then. He has a heart condition, which he takes medication for but nursery is out of the question because he is prone to infection, which could be really bad for his health so we were going to send him to a childminder but now im starting to consider a nannys as some childminders look after many children and collect from schools (swine flu).

My work have agreed to work from home 3 days a week and in the office for 2 days so maybe a nanny would be better but our flat is quite small and it would have to be an approved nanny? How much do these nannies usually cost and does anyone know what the maximum limit tax credits will pay towards the costs?

if you use a nanny, you decide on what you will pay her. It will be affected by her age and level of qualifications / experience and your location

Tax credits depends on how much you earn so you would need to speak to IR about how much childcare help they will give you

So will nanny be full time as in 5 days a week?

You arent going to try to do childcare and work on your work at home days?

If you qualify, tax credits pays up to 80% of £175 per week, assuming your childcarer is being paid £175 a week or more. Therefore it is £140 a week, if you qualify for max amount of Childcare element of Working tax credit. I think it is WTC2 and WTC5 info booklets from HMRC which explain childcare element of tax credits.
In my view a nanny is typically going to cost around £100 per day, more in London, plus extra costs for outings/activities. Employers NI and payroll costs will add some more on top. This is very much a ballpark figure, would need more info to calculate something closer, your location, hours of work.

Thanks Madusa, i have spoken to IR and they just said it depends on how much i earn and nannynick is right about the 140 a week threshold do even if i was paying 400-500pw for a nanny i would have to pay the remaining amount.

The nanny will need to be 5 days a week, initially i thought that i would be able to work from home and look after my son but i dont think that i'll be able to manage! I earn 109 per day so it looks like it's just not an option really. Maybe i'll have to re-think and go back to work part time.

Maybe contact some different CMs - I only look after my baby and 1 other (by choice ) so no hoardes of children to pass on infections.

the shocking thing is that the £175 only pays min wage for 30 hours a week so if you work full time you're stuffed even when only paying min wage.

Are you entitled to any allowances for your child if perhaps the doctors say he cannot go to a nursery due to infections.

I suspect that if you're earning over £100 a day full time you won't qualify for childcare tax credit - the threshold is quite low (a household income of a bit over £20K).

You could consider a nannyshare with a family of a child of similar age. That's what we're doing. It will just about halve whatever your costs would be if you were paying him/her just to look after your own child. This is because Nanny's typically charge a little more if they are looking after the children of two families.

Or do as leeloo1 suggests and find a childminder with fewer charges.

Thanks everyone, i think i'll look into finding a c/m like leeloo1 or look into a nanny share- both sound like ideas that will work!
Oh Danthe4th, there just doesn't seem to be anywhere that offers and type of extra allowance for these situations!

I'm not sure what area you are in, but you may have an inclusion support officer who will work for the NCMA they specialize in helping to find childminders for children with extra needs (not necessarily additional needs) if you have special requirements because of your childs health they may know childminders who take fewer children and offer a special service.

Its just a thought, I know that we have it in our area (Herts)