To get a drs note for stress due to covid-19 and childcare issues

[Hmmmmminteresting]

I feel sick I'm so stressed!

Have 2 x dc in full time nursery. Our fees are £1400 a month which is crippling for me and dh as our other bills are expensive too.
Today nursery have announces that should they be forced to close (which they think they will very soon) we will still be charged in full.

Also today, my work have said that they will not be allowing any working from home and if we have to go off to look after dc due to school or nursery closures we will be allowed dependency leave but it will be unpaid.
DH has asked his boss tonight and been told the same. Ds1 starts school in september and we have all of our annual leave booked already for the year to ensure we have holidays covered.
We have no help from family around here at all.
Would I be unreasonable to aim to go to the doctors in the next week and get signed off, just so I can get sick pay (I get 12 weeks paid sick leave a year). I'm so stuck and I know I wont sleep tonight!

Any better ideas I'm very open to

I'm sorry EmeraldShamrock. This whole thing is just utterly shit.

@SpaceDinosaur it was you who said take them out of nursery until they're older. I wanted to know how they're supposed to work until the child is older?

And yet people are saying elsewhere that this is a small price to pay. Never mind that people are going to be out of pocket, you just have to grin and bear it apparently.

The problem with nurseries is that if you don’t pay them they will go out of business, meaning that people will be permanently stuck without childcare and in many instances forced to give up work to look after them themselves.

This is why school and nursery closures would at present be a knee-jerk reaction with long term and potentially devastating consequences.

I have already been signed off for the last 3 weeks due to my dh (who is disabled with MS) having a medical emergency resulting in emergency surgery and a stay in icu. All very stressful without the added risk of corona virus! My dh is very vulnerable and it would be very dangerous if he catches it. He also now has an ileostomy so we are getting to grips with all that entails.

I am now on medication for anxiety and am so stressed. Was still awake at 3am this morning. Not great when you have a dh convalescing who requires a lot of support.
I will be phoning my gp to request to be signed off again. I will continue to do so for as long as I need. I am genuinely stressed and anxious because of my dhs health which was already poor before he ended up in hospital. People will need to do what is right for themselves and their families but obviously this will impact businesses and other work places. Unprecedented times

@NerrSnerr yes, use a different method of child care until they are older. Because nursery fees are less the older the child.

I only suggested an au pair because unlike a childminder they won’t close if such a time comes and they’re based in their home. They are also much less expensive than a nanny. I wasn’t aware of the 20hr limit. It was purely a suggestion.
I’m guessing that a nanny would cost around £1.2k (£300/week?) Depending on where the OP lives which isn’t much less than £1.4k/month but a Nanny won’t close?

I’m offering suggestions.

@Ellisandra

“you know that au pairs aren’t sieve labour, right?”
Yes. Nobody provides slave labour.

“Plus - how’s OP going to magic this au pair out of her arse in time?!!”
Bend and squat?!! I’m offering alternative suggestions not completely finished solutions.

I'd love an au pair but no space unfortunately

A nanny would be a good bit more - OP has 2 kids in FT nursery. So presumably she would need a nanny say 8-6 minimum, that's 50 hours a week. A minimum of £10 per hour for a nanny, often more. Plus pension, employers NI, sick pay, etc etc etc. Total cost would be closer to £2.5k per month.

I think the general rule of thumb is nannies tend to work out cheaper if you have 3 or more kids. Varies a lot depending on local fee levels.

People are so clueless saying nurseries cannot do that. They can and they will. I suggest any other thinking other wise reads their contract ASAP

(Not saying I agree!)

It's a tricky one.

My organisation is paying if you're off with any CV related illness and it won't be counted towards any occupational sick pay, or Bradford scoring. If you're taking time off for childcare then its unpaid. Seems fair to me.

However, if nurseries don't get paid whilst they're closed then there will unlikely be a nursery to go back to. The few nurseries that survive would probably hike their fees.

This is the fault of the employer being inflexible when they know it will put their staff into hardship.
When you read something like:

We have been told we wont get sick pay if we self quarantine even if we have a cough!

That confirms who is the shitty organisation here. I take it you're not in a union, OP? Can you and your colleagues get together if not, go and see the boss and explain just how difficult this is making life for you? And perhaps get across to them that you will remember later how flexible they were - or weren't - prepared to be over this. In your shoes, if they wouldn't budge I would be looking for another job, and in the meantime I wouldn't do another minute of extra work for them, not a single task beyond the minimum required for me, nothing. If they offered me no good will - they would get none in return.

I’d do it, fuck it, if you dropped dead of this your work would you replaced and forgotten about in the blink of an eye.

People have to name and shame employers in the media.

As much as I hate the DM
They are desperate for shocking stories about awful employers.

Those people who will not help should be shamed.

There is currently uncertainty if nurseries will get covered by insurance due to loop holes and even if all county councils will still pay the funding for this term if forced closure is recommended by the government. Many nurseries are small private businesses that haven't been able to put money aside due to the poor 30 hours funding rates. At lot of nurseries are unable to pay over min wage to their staff.

As a single parent nursery worker I am very worried about forced closure because I have my own family to support on a low wage. I hope that my employer can afford to continue to pay me in a forced closure event. I am still willing to work and available to do so so it would be unfair for me not to be paid. Just as it is unfair for parents to still be charged for their child's nursery place in order for me - and my colleagues - to be paid.

At the end of the day, none of us want to be in this situation, all of us will be out of pocket in some way. A forced closure isn't the nursery choosing not to provide a service but the government deciding on a course of action to protect everyone in our society. We all need to help each other. If that means paying some fees to ensure the nursery remains viable and staff can still be paid then that may well be necessary. Hopefully everyone's employers can afford to pay them if their place of employment also has to close through no fault or choice of their own.

That’s a lot of money to be paying in nursery fees (I wouldn’t pay it) I would leave and worry about it when this is all over. Can you not maybe find a night job? Nursing home maybe. Or just work part time?. I think all services are under pressure so maybe say you have developed anxiety to your GP to bide yourself some time. Good luck!

@EmrysAtticus you do realise that some parents pay £250+ a week in nursery fees so you expect parents to pay this to maintain the staff wages. What about the parents/single parent? are they meant to work with NO childcare?? and a nursery bill.
Regardless of weather you get your normal salary is besides the point as you will have your child at home.. not everybody has close family or a magical baby sitter! It’s an unfortunate situation for a lot of people right now.