CM CLUB - sick of the misconceptions - what did you earn last year??

[MissElleToe]

Am thoroughly sick of all the comments I see on MN about how we must be raking it in, so come on let's see how much you all earned 08/09.

My gross income was £12,000. Of that just over £8,500 was mine. For 45 hour weeks of contact time, more if you include cleaning up, paperwork etc.

Yup, raking it in

Please feel free to namechange as I have done

Um, but some childminders are "raking it in".

I can understand that it pisses you off that it is assumed to be all childminders.

An example of a childminder doing well would be mine, who has 5 children full time, we all pay between £500 - £750 per month.

How many children do you mind and what are your hourly rates? I think that has a bearing.

itsmeolord, that is gross income, not what she would be getting to keep for herself though. Average expenses are a third to a half according to the tax office.

Yes, I understand she pays tax etc, she is still earning a good wage though isn't she.

We all pay tax etc by the way.And an awful lot of people have to pay large travel expenses to get to work, childminders are not the only ones who see a third to a half of their wages swallowed by essential work related expenses including tax and NI.

One childminder cannot care for 5 children full time. They would either be working with someone else, or some of the children will be at school and therefore be part time (maybe only a couple of hours a day during term time). I work 50 hours a week and ended up with an income of £9,500 last year, before the tax man took his cut.

No childminder can look after 5 children full time, even if itsmeolord's childminder has got 5 children full time at a average of £500 a month per child = £30,000 a year- minus expenses at roughly 50% = £15,000 - minus tax and NI your childminder would be left with a gross profit of around £12,300 which would be a weekly wage of £236 hardly raking it in

I didn't state she was raking it in, I said she was doing well.

The children are a mix of school age and pre school, two pre school and three school age, plus her two. One is yr2, one is an older teen.
During school holidays all children are full time, during term time we pay a retainer for school hours and full pay for outside school hours, hence the £500 - 750 per month ave.

Her expenses are not 50%. I am confused as to how they would be.
also, you can claim back certain things under business expenses can you not?

Its not just the net income though, its all the savings as well like no travel expenses, no childcare costs, part of the household bills etc can be offset against tax as well as new toys, craft equipment etc.

S/E peoples net wage always look worse as they deduct everything possible to keep the tax bill low.

I earned 12,000 net last year, out of which I had to pay my childminder.

And she's worth every penny before anyone jumps on me. I thought part of the point of being a CM was that you were in your own home, able to look after your own children at the same time etc. I would think most people currently working as CM would be no better off if they worked FT out of the home and paid someone else to care for their children.

You can easily have 50% in expenses, how do you know what her expenses are itsmeolord? there is a list a mile long of expenses you can deduct. My expenses were 54% last year and will more or less be the same this year.

I know that she has 3 school age children and two pre-school (both are Jan starts) so she has minimal early years related stuff.

She has a people carrier which she will have to insure, she does not pay for food, the parents provide all food. We also pay for any trips she does so no expenses there.
she will have to pay petrol but again, all children are dropped off/picked up so school run which is less than 3 miles each way plus any local groups she may do during the day. Not a huge outlay there.
Her registration fees, I'm not sure if these are annual or not but again, it won't be tens of thousands will it.

as reality says, she can offset heating bills etc and most of the expenses you are talking about would be there anyway....

No I would not be spending them anyway, how do you work that one out? If I was not a CM I wouldn't have my heating on from 7am-7pm or use the same amount of electricity, pay for ofsted fees, childminding insurance, increased houshold insurance, increased car insurance, an extra £50 a week on my food bill,I'd use less petrol, wouldnt have to pay for soft play, toddler groups etc, the list goes on and on.

Assuming you worked, you would pay PAYE at source without any scope to deduct petrol for commuting, any food at all, you would have your own child care costs, none of your insurance would be deductible etc etc etc.

Assuming I worked yes I would pay PAYE at source would be able claim up to 80% of the child care element of tax credits, would be on minimum wage or more, wouldnt have to attend evening courses, be at the beck and call of parents, spend time at night doing paperwork and be alot better off finacially. I didn't become a CM to make loads of money its impossible, I did it so I could look after my own children and earn a bit extra at the same time.

Very few jobs involve no training or own time commitment at all. Very few people qualify for 80% of child care element of tax credits - most people don't qualify for anything. You became a childminder to enable you to look after your own child and have a bit extra, that's what you're doing, not sure what your grumble is.

If you don't want to be at "beck and call of parents", don't be.

Was going to write everything that georgimamma just has.

Sorry, hit post too soon.

You should be recovering the soft play fees, food bill etc from the parents of mindees. Its not a requirement of childminding that you pay for all of that stuff. To be honest, its a little bit of martyrdom if you decide to do all those things but don't recover the costs properly.

Make shameless free use of the local surestart centre, that's what my CM does.

Georgimama I aint grumbling just stating the facts to an earlier part of the thread most CM's I know dont rake it in. and alot of what we earn is used for expenses, I know we can offset tax but we have to spend it in the first place to offset it.

can i ask where do we recover the costs from,,,,,yes expenses but we have to take it out of the fee in the first place,,, some CM are lucky as they have many children to recover the cost, however where im from im finding it difficult to get the children in the first place,,,, ppl struggle with jobs so no need for CM's,,, so not alot of income for me,,, i wonder why alot of ppl think that childminders have a load of cash,,,,,i wish

FREE use of surestart centre's,, my local surestart centre is not free, i take the children and have to pay for the sessions,,,