How much should I pay my childminder for petrol?

[nessus]

7wks in and everything is going okay with new childminder. On the whole the initial contract terms are being met and she is proving to be a flexible and positive minded person. She mentioned this evening that she will be now be wanting petrol paid which I should state I have no problem with but I don't know how much I should be offering.

Is it the standard 40p per mile? As it is I have no idea if she has a set figure in mind already and I really don't want this to turn matters sour between us (or have to cut down her hours to compensate, which I will and can do, if I have to) so I need to have an offer in mind for when we have a chat about this, which will likely be tomorrow.

Part of the contract is that she picks DD up from home in the morning and she also drives DD to extra-curricular activities - a couple happen to be 3miles away - from what I gather it is these activities that she wants to start charging for.

You should put this in the Childminders section of MN - I have never heard of this before!

I have used 2 childminders and never paid mileage - any trips out etc are paid for out of the hourly or daily rate - so I pay say £25 a day and she decides what to do with DD.

I would say - check your contract - does it mention paing mileage? Have you asked her to take DD to these activites or has she chosen to take her? If you have asked her then it would be reasonable to pay her - but I would reckon that 40p is too much - we get that at work as a casual car user - she has a car and uses it as part of her business, so 20p per mile would be more likely.

I would guess that her picking DD up is out of the ordinary for her day and is it a special trip or on the way to somewhere - if it is on the way to school drop offs say, then she would be passing anyway and you shouldnt have to pay!

Definately post in the Childminding section - there are usually loads on there at this time of night!!

Thanks andirobobo. Posted in the suggested section and got lots of useful responses, many along the same line as yours.

Thanks once again.