Are your DC sports clubs still charging despite training being cancelled?

[SuefromBudgeting]

DC1 - been told to cancel our standing order until training resumes
DC2 - being asked if we will pay a reduced amount to help the self employed coaches. Which is fine in principle but DH is self employed and work is drying up.

What are your DC's sports clubs doing?

Paying April as normal and they are hoping they can get a grant to pay the rent... they did say if anyone had difficulties to get in touch.

If there is only one parent/one working and they are self employed I would assume they fall into the category of "unable to pay".

The fees have been suspended. When everything is up and running, they will be re-activated.

Thanks for replies. Rent has been suspended, it's coaches' fees we're being asked to contribute to.

Personally I'd expect salaried people to pay, those that no longer have an income I just don't see how they can

I would get in touch with the club and explain that you don't have an income anymore.

We are paying a slightly reduced fee but the organisation are providing lots of online video training and live streamed classes which is great for wearing the kids out and keeping their technique up to scratch for when classes go back.

Personally I'd expect salaried people to pay

DH's argument is that as a self-employed person he puts money aside for periods of unemployment/sickness - the coaches should have done the same and not be relying on parents.

Yes I agree- by salaried I mean those receiving their usual pay for the foreseeable future.

DH both will be, DD has lost her job 0 hour contract. We will be paying as normal because it's "doing our bit"

Well, I can think of other ways of "doing my bit" that don't include paying for coaching my DC won't receive.

We paid our fees for DDs dance classes up front. The teacher has said she will honour refunds if you reeeeally need one. We're letting her keep our fee for the term. She is posting stuff online so they can still practice ready for exams that are booked for the summer (if it goes ahead)

Swimming I pay in blocks of 10 lessons for DDs baby swim so that's just paused. But older DD is in direct debit which the centre still takes and says for each week there's no lesson we can claim a free adult swim pass.

Initially they said we had to carry on as they had to pay venue costs. This changed when all venues had to close so now it's suspended till they can start back again. They've also said that if anyone wants to carry on paying to support the club they can and they will ring fence the money to invest in new kit.
Not sure about coaches. It's awful for self employed people out there, I think there will be some measures announced this week.

Just tell them that as you are self employed you don't have any money to give them...

Ds club have said parents can stop and restart DD from April until it starts again but have reminded parents of overheads and how funds will be eaten up. They have said can stop, can continue to pay or pay reduced amount.

DS1 taekwondo club closed, however his trainer is creating videos and sending to us via whatsapp, and is also going to be doing facebook live classes and setting up some sort of group thing we can all do online. He's trying his best to keep things going although obviously the grading which was due in 3 weeks wont be taking place for a while now

We are still paying because at the minute both me and DH are working

i’m still paying for my eldest’s boxing classes. he normally goes 4 times a week but they’ve now had to close. i’ll continue to pay because the man who runs it rents the building to run as a boxing gym and he’d have to close if he didn’t get paid. he’s amazing with the kids he works with and they’d be gutted if he had to close so most of the parents are still paying the weekly fees, as are many of his other clients. i’m not paying for my youngest’s football club though. it’s run on a voluntary basis and they use the local college facilities to train so no one’s losing out there.

Dd hasnt to pay anything although we had already paid a 5 week block in advance.

Ds has asked us to still pay April's fees if we can in the first and that will be last payment till they go back. Said if they are back in May then they wont pay at all. Dont really understand this method to be honest.

My dc sports club is pay as you go so we don't have to pay when it's not on.

I paid for DS swimming lessons upfront so as far as I’m concerned that money is gone. I’ve told the teacher I don’t want a refund either

My ds does two different football clubs, swimming and karate and all have suspended payments until they reopen which I really appreciate

@sunshineandshowers21 let the Boxing guy know there is likely to be grants available to pay the rent 🤞

@RandomMess thank you, i’ll definitely let him know. he really is a lovely man and all the kids love him so it would be such a shame if he was forced to closed permanently.

Swimming - the pools have been closed and they've automatically halted all the direct debits

Fight club ( martial arts/self defence) they are a small independent and have asked everyone if they can pay Aprils fees, but of course we don't have to. I said ok to that, and asked if they could maybe get some tutorials online for us instead.

Rocksteady (music lessons) haven't actually asked if we'd like to stop, and have stated that they are offering online lessons. Which actually were supposed to be released today but I haven't seen anything yet.

Swimming lessons fees have been frozen until the pool reopens.

Athletics club subscription was paid for the year in February but coach is sending through a plan for ds to follow. However, if we do get a lockdown ds won't be able to do it and will just have to use our turbo trainer.

I had also paid my running club membership who are sending out a weekly email but otherwise not really being very supportive of their members at all, I know other clubs are organising virtual challenges.

I have also paid in advance for PT and driving lessons so expect those to be frozen until I/ds can use them. PT may be possible via video, driving, not so much :)