Grandmother childminding please help

redrooney

Hi ,ive read throgh many posts and its a bit of a minefield , i know many people have views about grandparents looking after their grandchildren ,but if someone could give me the correct answer for the position we are in ,i would be greatful .

myself and partner ,were both working full time two years ago , i then needed a reconstruction on my knee ,and my partner became pregnant with twins(they are 10 months old now ),i have had nearly two years off work and my partner had her 9 months ,she has returned full time ,as my job involved bending i want to go to college full time to learn another trade ,so we need to find a child minder ,

my mother wants to leave her full time job to become a childminder ,but wishes to look after our two kids but would not beable to quit her job if she was not getting paid
so the questions that i need answered are .

would ourselfs get the £300 for two kids allowance for my mother to look after our kids .

would she need to register as a childminder

would she recieve tax credits etc for looking after our twins

i read that if she looked after another child and ours that would be ok ,

so the bottem line is we wish to work and go to college full time and my mother is prepared to quit job to do this ,but we need the money to pay her and she needs to be paid !!

or is the only other option is to pay some other childminder to look after our kids (which we are dead against ) or i continue to look after the twins myself .

any help would be greatfully recieved

thankyou

DX2

Q. A family member looks after my child(ren), will I be entitled to the childcare element of Working Tax Credit?

A. You will not be eligible for help from the Working Tax Credit childcare element if the childcare is provided by:

• a relative of a child caring for that child in the child’s home, even if the relative is ‘registered’ or ‘approved’ or
• a relative approved’ under the:
  • Childcare Approval Scheme in England
  • Approval of Childcare Provider in Wales
  • Registration of the Childcare Providers Scheme in Northern Ireland

caring for a child or children, away from the child’s or children’s home and the care is solely for a child, or children, to whom the provider is related.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/faqs-childcare-general.htm#8

redrooney

The children would not be cared for in the childs home ,it would be at their granparents !!have not read through the link yet ,would this make a difference ?

Hammyman

If it was done on purely business terms in their place of business, i.e the grandparents home, yes.

LondonDiva

unbelievable...

JC9297

Not totally sure but I think you both have to be working at least 16 hours to receive the childcare element of tax credits, if one of you is studying I don't think you qualify (unless you work as well). I think if Grandmother is a registered childminder looking after the children in her home she has to look after at least one other child as well ( to stop people registering just to get childcare element IYSWIM).

Loopy_Girl

A Granny looking after 3 kids - 2 of them babies - for 5 days a week....has she really thought if she could cope?

Add to that it is pretty full on to get registered...it's not going to happen in the next couple of months.

Though I agree with other poster...you would both have to be working to get help with childcare.

In an ideal world we would all like our parents to look after our kids and for someone else to pay for it;)

DaisyFlower

Its not as simple as that, if you want tax credits to pay the childcare element you both need to be working 16 hours. If the CM is their grandmother she has to have other children as well as yours otherwise tax credits wont actually consider her a CM regardless of registration etc.

Instead of looking for ways to beat the system, perhaps you could channel the energy into finding a night time course or doing one via home learning then you wont need childcare.

karenx

The grandmother will have to go through different tests etc to become a registered childminder and will have to get her house looked at to make sure it complys with the laws etc.
Then she will then have to find another child to look after aswell as your twins. Is she prepared to go through all that just so you dont have to find a childminder elsewhere?
If she is prepared for all that it will take some time for it all to happen and for her to get approved and a registration number for you to give to tax credits. Plus you both need to be in paid employment of 16hours plus per week to be eligable for the help. And if your both on a low income it will be 80% they will pay. The more you earn together the less help you will get. And remember the grandmother will have to charge the same amount to you per week as she does for the other child. So if she charges you £300 per week and you were entitled to 80% of the help you will still need to pay £60 per week yourself.

SuziQ

Why are you 'dead set against' using a childminder other than the children's grandmother? There are excellent childminders out there, it's just a matter of choosing carefully. It also avoids the sometimes complicated problem that can occur when a relative is doing something with the child that the parents don't like, but are too embarrassed to say because the minder is a relative! It's far more professional to use a non family member in my experience.

hackedoffatthem

I am a registered childminder and i think you need to look very carefully before you dive head first into this.....

Firstly you say granny cannot afford to give up her full time job... It took me 13 months to get registered when i did it just over a year ago. I have just filed my first tax return and made a loss

Also for every full time week i do i would add another 5-10 hours on top of that for paperwork (mandatory) and that doesn't include extra training (unpaid), visits from new parents, meetings with developement officers, inspections from OFSTED, food hygiene,


the list goes on..... Its a full time career and business, not an easy way to get paid by tax credits for looking after the grandchildren........