granny leave?!

[beanieb]

story story

"The YouGov survey for Grandparents Plus of more than 2,000 people found 61% of those polled agreed that grandparents should be paid by the government for providing childcare."

do you think that grandparents shold be given 'granny leave'? Should they be financially reimbursed for the time they spend looking after their grandchildren?

Surely if anyone should be paying them it's the parents who are getting free childcare?!

GLaDOS - surely if we want to remunerate "women's work" then a better place to start would be by paying mums or dads to help them stay at home if they so wish?
A granny salary only helps people whose parents are close by / available / interested in contributing to their childcare. Not exactly fair to reward people who have more supportive/able families, leaving those who don't to fend for themselves?
I don't think I've heard anything more ludicrous than this proposal for quite a while.

Hear, hear Holiday Queen.

GlaDOS - what does the the 55% relate to? 55% of a random samlpe poll or 55% of grandparents who look after their grandkids?

Yes that would be great HQ! But is it realistic? Grandparents are retired. Women of childbearing age aren't. I'm not agreeing with it yet, just trying to list pros and cons.

Nancy75, the reason childminders are paid and grandparents are not is because they're NOT doing the same job.
Childminders have to be registered, insured and trained. They're also regularly inspected.
They're qualified childcarers.

Grandparents can be registered, too, but most don't want the hassle and extra work. Therefore they shouldn't expected Government money for doing it.

I tend to agree with what unavailable, LilRedWg and Flibbertyjibbet all said.

Surely if grandparents want to be paid for childcare then it's up to the parents to pay the!

I tend to agree with what unavailable, LilRedWg and Flibbertyjibbet all said.

Surely if grandparents want to be paid for childcare then it's up to the parents to pay the!

glados - Not all gps are 65+ and drawing their pensions! Many work part time, or work different hours to their children so can fit childcare in around that.

Why should govt money only be given to grandparents doing the childcare? If we want to subsidise pensioners, it should go into their pensions, regardless of whether they have gcs they can look after or not. If we want to subsiside childcare it should go to the parents who can then decide whether to stay at home, use it for cm/nanny/nursery/granny or get granny to do it for free and keep the money for holidays/boozing/sky tv! Their children, their choice.

Giving it to granny for doing a bit of childcare is a bit of a half-arsed approach to dealing with both elderly poverty and the high cost of childcare.

Agree Holidaysqueen.

It just wouldnt be fair because not all kids have grandparents (or have ones who could do child care)

Its not an option for everyone

I am 39 years old and could quite easily be a grandparent at my age. I am not retired!

Agree with beanieb.

If grandparents are providing childcare and want to be paid then ask the parents to pay the going rate!! Don't expect the tax payer to fork out for it.

GlaDOS - I don't think there's any rational argument that can be made for this. In fact I believe most studies show that children who attend nursery do better than those in unpaid care with extended family.

As others have said, if a grandparent who is providing a service for free is asked 'Would you like to be paid for it?' they're bound to answer 'YES!'. Doesn't mean it's a realistic or fair idea.

I can see it now. You know what's going to happen? This will be yet another perfect opportunity for the government to start a new department - which will be staffed by utter morons - to regulate and inspect the 'Quality of Grandparental Childcare'.

Grrr.

If I could afford to pay my parents to look after my son then I would but, as has been said they would have to register as childminders first before I'd get tax credits.
They are both ex-teachers and have already spent many years suffering at the hands of OFSTED, we all decided that it would be just too hideous to have the inspectors round their house.

Well.. I think that people should pay for their own childcare of whatever sort and not expect the govt to pay. If you can't earn enough to pay the childcare then stop at home, if you need to go and earn the money go and retrain and get a better paid job. there now I feel better!!

beetlemum, you don't agree with the tax credit things for working parents then?

Someone on the radio mentioned grandparents getting grandparental leave when a baby is born. Judging by the number of anti-MIL posts on here, there would be a significant number of MNers running for the hills if this happened.

I'd be bloody jealous if it came in - don't have grandparents anywhere near us who are fit and able and willing to look after ds. Am already envious of people who do get free help from their parents, the idea that as a taxpayer I should be shelling out for wages would be really irritating!

I am a grandparent and I look after dgs one day a week.I took part in the survey.I do NOT want to be paid for doing something which lights up my life.Originally I did it so dd and sil could reduce amount they had to spend on childcare but if I didnt love it I would pay for the extra day as I did when I was on chemotherapy for 6 months.However some parents prefer babies to be looked after by a family member who loves the child,and sometimes a grandparent will give up paid work to care for a dgc.In that case I think payment eg childcare vouchers would be appropriate and maybe more grandparents would be able to do it.If I were able I would happily do 5 days a week with no payment except cuddles and smiles.

OK. completely off the point but I really can't let it lie.

"If you can't earn enough to pay the childcare then stop at home, if you need to go and earn the money go and retrain and get a better paid job. there now I feel better!!"

beetlemum, I'm shocked! My brother has just been made redundant, he has a chemistry degree and is a trained joiner, in this ecomomic climate finding a job at all, never mind a 'better paid job' really isn't as easy as you seem to think, he has had to start working for my father just to pay the mortgage. My sister in law, a trained arcithectural conveyancer has also just been made redundant, she is currently working as a waitress. You obviously have no idea what's actually going on in the world at the moment!

A grandparent wouldn't have to register as a Child Minder in order to get paid via tax credits. They simply have to have a CRB check, do a first aid course and then applied to become 'registered' with Ofsted. They receive a formal registration number which you give to the Tax Credits people and then claim the cost of childcare (well, in my case I would anyway since I'm a lone parent).

The scheme has been available for a few years and allows childcare that takes place in the home to be paid for. My au pair registered with Ofsted when she came here in 2007 which enabled me to claim the cost of the childcare she provided. The exact same can be done with grandparents.

Personally, if the grandparent is willing to become registered, I don't see why they shouldn't be paid. Many give an awful lot of time and effort to looking after their grandchildren. Although paying family members could bring about the prospect of some squabbling over money....

Granny leave!!!!!! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! comes out in cold sweat

Seriously, I don't know one GP that would want to be paid. The gov should be focusing on upping paternity leave for Dads, not this bollox.

No I don't think it is right. Basically the "government" don't pay for anything do they? the tax payer ie working women and men pay for it! and no I don't think that working people should pay for a grandparent to look after their own grandchild. The parents should fork out the money, I mean if a grandparent insisted on "charging" top whack for childcare then I wouldn't feel like leaving my child with them as I would query their motives.

Yes they probably deserve something but that should be arranged between parents and grandparents.

What ever next the tax payer paying for babysitters, so parents can go out and get pi**ed every night.

A grandparent wouldn't have to register as a Child Minder in order to get paid via tax credits. They simply have to have a CRB check, do a first aid course and then applied to become 'registered' with Ofsted. They receive a formal registration number which you give to the Tax Credits people and then claim the cost of childcare (well, in my case I would anyway since I'm a lone parent).

That is a registered Childminder. you have to do exactly that to become one.

I wasn't sure about this one, but if I think about it from my exact point of view (as in how different my life would be) I would have loved to leave my child with his Grandparents, who adore him and I trust with him to provide the best care there is. I think he would have a better quality of life. He was in nursery from 3 months old (only every now and then as I was at sixth form) and that was just too young. I felt guilty everytime. But his Gran works and his Gramps is retired, and has earned his retirement. I couldn't ask him to start working in childcare for free, full time could I?

When it comes down to it, I think most children would benefit from a closer relationship with their grandparents, and providing the financial support to do this would enable children to be with their Grandparents more.

beanieb your posts throughout this thread suggest that you think all parents qualify for tax credits.

A significant proportion of working parents get no tax credits at all - and they are far from loaded.

Yeah - To be honest Georgimama I have no firm understanding or knowledge of who qualifies for tax credits.

I am TTC so I haven't had to explore these myself.

I know some people don't get them