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?!

so even if I did look into it I would probably end up just as confused

Just want to clarify that GPs can't register as CMs through OFSTED if they are only looking after their own GCs. They need to look after at least one non family child as well so it is not quite as straightforward as some are suggesting - it would change the idea from being a GP looking after a GC to the GP being an actual childminder with otehr child/ren as well.

FWIW I think that the nursery voucher scheme maybe could be extended - but I doubt that many would take it up - as I suspect that a lot of people whose GP's are doing childcare are doing it for not much/cost/nothing. If a person was paying their parent the going rate I don't see that they shouldn't be able to take part in the nursery voucher scheme.

Maybe ditto working tax credits for childcare as well. I suspect this would be a bit easier to fiddle though so not so sure about it.

I wasn't trying to have a go, I was just trying to point out that someone who is new to this stuff might reasonably reach the conclusion thanks to all the propoganda put out by the government that they will qualify for help with childcare costs. You may not.

You don't have to earn very much (I think about 35k between the two of you) to get nothing at all.

I think childcare costs should be entirely tax deductible, whoever provides the care. DH is self employed, his PA's salary is entirely tax deductible but paying for someone to care for our child so we can both go to work in the first place (creating employment for other people in the process) isn't. That's screwy.

I completely agree with you there georgimama. If childcare is essential to enable you to do your job, then it should be entirely tax deductible. There are so many things which are tax deductible which have a far more tenuous link with working, yet childcare, which directly enables you to earn, isn't!

However, to go back to the OP, the issue about paying grandparents and giving them leave is utterly ridiculous!
Is anyone really suggesting that if you use a childminder, nursery or nanny, you pay for it, but if you use grandparents, you don't pay them and then expect the tax payer to do it for you?! Madness!!

I pay my nursery fees,my choice is not a financial burden on anyone else. so why the hell should someone who has GP be entitled to a handout

behave

Oh bugger, then I am f*cked. Perhaps I shouldn't keep trying to have kids!

our combined income is over £40,000. His mum lives in Spain, I have no expectations that my mum will look after my kids and anyway she's just retired so I wouldn't want to ask. My dad is dead, his dad barely keeps in touch!

beanieb, it might not be as bad as you think - my childminder charges 3 quid per hour. My mum has DS 1 day a week (and no I don't pay her!) so my almost fulltime childcare costs are about 425 quid per month.

Nurseries do tend to be a lot more expensive, but can be advantageous especially when DC gets to 3 and qualifies for 12.5 hours free per week term time, which can be topped up by parents paying the difference for what they need. That's the point when lots of women choose to go back to work I've noticed.

So people who are lucky enough to have parents who look after their children, which saves them the cost of a mortgage in childcare have more monetary reward to their parents too?
Crazy, I get bugger all help from my family and get clobbered for childcare too whilst running myself ragged to to hold it all together.
Families who have GP's who are willing and able to help out should just thank their lucky stars.
This government doesnt give a toss about working parents.

beanie you are right i do not agree with working tax credits for working parents to my mind all they do is subsidis low wages and perpetuate low wages.

I heartily agree with scottish mummy by the way.

hmm sleep sorry abut you brother and sil, I expressed myself a bit clumsily. I hope things get better for them soon .

i just get annoyed with the whole atx credits system and was venting.

"beanieb, it might not be as bad as you think"

I filled in the online 'are you entitled to ' thing and guessed at £400 a month (though I really have no idea) fees and was told I would get £16.50 a week!

obviously a lot of it was guess work. Our subsidised work Creche is closing in 2010 so I would have to find other kinds of childcare. All very scary but hopefully I will be able to come back to work if I decide i still want to.

DD's NHS nursery has just put up fees by 11%,thats nearly £100 more a month. DP and I both work we get F-all help via benefits.
Id almost kill from any just a few hours free childcare.

for not from..

My mother and mother in law (both of retirement age)look after our children while we are at work.

We could not afford to put our youngest in full time nursery to enable me to return to work.

We pay our parents to look after our children, obviously not as much as we would have to pay a nursery. It's an arrangement that suits us all, as we have absolutely no worries about the kids, my kids get to spend quality time with their grandmas and everyone is not skint. I am dreading the day when one of them finds it too much and wants to stop. We'll be farked then.

Ok I havent read the full thread but I though the point of this was not so much punishing for people not having family they can rely on but more for helping people get paid for the work they do.

I am pregnant and want my parents to look after bubs when she arrives. This is for many reasons- I cant afford a full time nursery (Nor would I want to when I believe I have a better alternative.) My mum is a recently retired child care professional with 40 years of early years child care experience. I trust her with my life and failing me and my partner I can not think of better people to entrust my child to.

I have looked into getting her re-registered as a childminder (She used to do this when I was little) But the insurance costs and the ofstead work that is now required would be unfairly onurous to her.

She doesnt want paying but as she is retired I think this would be unfair.

If I was to but my child into nursery I would qualify for child care vouchers from work which would cut the cost.

I would like to get the same tax benifits so I could at least pay my mum something for her time and effort and she would be more likely to accept if she didnt think it would be leaving us short of cash.

Sorry hever, the State can't afford to pay your mother just so that she doesn't feel she's taking cash from your pocket.

However, you will be saving an absolute fortune so if she won't take money from you then there will be plently of scope for you to provide regular treats such as meals out, days away, even a holiday to say thank you.

If you can't afford a full-time nursery and your mother is your only option then that's what you have to do or sah.
If you qualify for child tax vouchers from work surely that is recognition for the cost of childcare they would assume you were using and to help you with that. If you weren't paying the going rate of childcare then you wouldn't need that help.
However if you paid your mother less than the amount that you would be paying less the tax voucher amount then you and your mother gain, surely.
Hope that makes sense.

It will never happen. The state are not going to pay GPs money when they know GPs do the work for free 99% of the time. If you was Gordon Brown and knew you were saving a bundle on a free workforce, you wouldn't change it would you.

Agree Harry, but tis a shame

I don't think the state should pay, even if they could afford it. Families help each other because they want to-not for financial gain. If the state pays, the state will interfere. If I ever get to be a grandmother I shall have fun, I am not going to be ticking development boxes and reaching targets etc.

Heverhoney1 - Obviously I don't know all your circumstances but when our au pair registered with Ofsted so that I could claim tax credits, the process was fairly straightforward.

She did a CRB check (filled in a form, sent it off, all fine), a first-aid course (you can do a quickie one I think with St Johns Ambulance) and I paid the Ofsted registration fee of £100 for the year (or thereabouts). The insurance requirement was covered under my home contents policy automatically.

So, depending on how much you and your DP earns and how much you might get in tax credits, it could be worth investigating the registration route!

HTH

StewieGriffinsMom - that's not the case anymore AFAIK. The rules were changed a couple of years ago to enable grandparents/au pairs etc to look after their charges in the home of the children.

Our au pair registered and certaintly didn't have to take anyone else on. She looked after my daughter, that was it. She wasn't deemed to be a childminder, just someone that had a registration number. She didn't appear on any childminding registry anywhere.

The same would apply to grandparents.

If the government gave them money Stewie it wouldn't be long before they were interfering, IMO.