How much should I pay my sister for childcare?

jimexbox

Apparently they also take a dim view of people getting registered just to look after a child who is a relative. Although seeing all the stuff my wife had to do to get registered, I wouldn't thought it would be worth the hassle. Its not just a case of ringing the council up.

You have to sit the obligatory course, 8-10 weeks. Two day first aid course, a medical form from your GP which they charge for, police checks and endless council forms. Then Ofsted pay you a visit and access your care, this includes having policy documents, and endless parent forms to fill in. Not forgetting first aid kits and fire blanket.

Any registered childminder has my total respect, it ain't easy.

Dizie

My sister looked after my daughter for me when I went back to work and I paid her £160 per month. We worked this out based on what it would have cost me (after childcare vouchers) to put DD in nursery, and used their holiday rules - i.e.you only pay for 48 weeks out of 52 as they assume you'll have a 2 week break, plus Easter and Christmas. If for any reason she couldn't have DD, over and above the 4 weeks "holiday", I didn't pay her.

My sister was self employed and so declared this as income, although fortunately it didn't push her over her tax allowance.

I provided nappies and food other than what she had for her own kids. If they went anywhere, like softplay etc, I'd pay for that although we did add my daughter on to my sisters family membership for a few places.

Hope this helps, and good luck going back to work, am sure you'll be fine!

swiss69

I wouldnt look after a 9 month old baby for less than £200 a day ........But I am male!!!;)

jillymit

minnie123 wrote: »

I am thinking maybe I should just stick with my first plan of paying her a fixed monthly amount then I can set up a direct debit and not think about it. I am thinking now anywhere from £100 to £150 a month. maybe I should go somewhere in the middle and say £125. That would be £1,500 a year and I worked out if she has him twice a week excluding xmas and my holidays it works out about 80 odd days. So that works out to £18.75 daily. Does that sound fair?

Not wishing to sound mean here but this might be a bit awkward if you have a couple of weeks off, would you still pay her even if she didn't mind your baby? I know it works out ok over the year but it might feel a bit odd paying the full amount if she only covered half the month for you
I think I would try and stick to paying her weekly if possible.
I, like you would want to give her something for her kindness and think £20 a day is a good token amount, cheaper that a registered childminder but not taking the p and expecting it for nothing.
Minding a relatives baby now and again is a real pleasure but doing it without fail week in week out is a big commitment, it might be worth agreeing a couple of months trial to see if everyones happy with the arrangement. ( no offence intended )
She may refuse your offer of payment though, in that case I'd either insist or tell her you will save it and buy her something huge for her birthday or Chrismas instead, her choice.:D

scotty1971

tiamai_d wrote: »

I wouldn't pay a registered childminder £3.50 an hour! :eek: Round here it's £2.50 for a registered childminder or £28 (9am-5pm provide your own packed lunch) nursery.

Though I have to say, having used childminders and nursery, I much prefere nursery. We are lucky, DS2's nursery is amazing... and it's free for him

Only experience of family was a huge stressfull letdown, but that's my family (well DH's).

OP, the £125 a month sounds great to me, now to relax and make your offer to your SIL.

would you take the reponsibility for someone else's child for £2.50 an hour?
wouldn't pay for the paperwork a childminder has to do!

Savvy_Sue

feelinggood wrote: »

I thought there was some regulation that said that you cannot be paid to look after someones child (even a relative) if you aren't registered with OFSTED? I've tried searching, but can't find what I'm looking for - anyone know what I'm talking about?

I thought you could not pay someone to look after your child in THEIR home for more than 2 hours a day without them being registered as a childminder, however I find I'm wrong, because if the child is related to you it's OK. See here for a link to a pdf here.

However if the childcare isn't registered then you can't get the tax credits. Those who don't have to register can do so voluntarily, which might be to the OP's advantage, but would almost certainly be a lot of hassle for the OP's sister!

ailuro2

I'd not pay her anything in a formal amount, she jhas said she doesn't want the money and you have said you do ned it.

However, I'd save the money and buy her something nice about 4 times a year - something nice for her going on holiday, bigger Christmas present, etc....

Kaz2904

When I went back to work after I had DS I was paying £150 to a childminder.

DH jokingly said to SiL that we should pay her to look after the kids. She said it was a good idea. She said she'd do it for £50 per week but only to pay her 1/2 if she only had them 1/2 the week and not to pay her if she didn't have them.
We went away and discussed it and I said to DH that £50 was too little. We ended up agreeing on £70 per week, 3 days or more. 2 days or less was £35 and if she didn't have them we weren't to pay.
This wasn't going to save us a huge amount of money but was giving them an extra income as she didn't work at all.
It didn't work out. She wanted more money after a while.The straw that broke the camels back was when she turned around and said, I've worked it out and you can afford it!
(That really got my goat, DH & I working full time and living in a tiny flat with 2 kids and 1 car. Her & BiL with 1 kid, 2 cars, 1 job and expecting us to make up this shortfall by making ourselves worse off.)
I saw SiL the next day and told her that I couldn't pay it so was giving her a months notice. I explained that we couldn't afford it as we didn't get any tax credits to pay her with as she wasn't registered. I didn't want to fall out with her about it but she knew what she needed to survive on and I knew what we needed to survive on.

The best bit was that it was all my fault. MiL blamed me. Whenever it was mentioned she went on about how much money we were saving (£5 a week). When it came to an end DH and his Brother just said oh it's between the 2 of them. !!!!!!!

Mojisola

ailuro2 wrote: »

I'd not pay her anything in a formal amount, she jhas said she doesn't want the money and you have said you do ned it.

However, I'd save the money and buy her something nice about 4 times a year - something nice for her going on holiday, bigger Christmas present, etc....

I've seen this before - someone says they don't want paying and then, months down the line, they start to feel used. I don't think that's unreasonable - the OP is earning money while the sister is working for free.

SandC

I would say £100 per month then that takes care of times when she might only have him for 4 days if you are on hols for a fortnight etc.

I wouldn't worry about this income malarkey - you can call it a gift for doing a favour. Which is what it is really.