letter from child tax credits

lucylong1

hi everyone, i got great advice of the posters on the debt free wanna be boards so i thought i would ask her for my friend. she has recieved a letter saying she has to show a letter from her childminder, which she can do. only thing is with her work she works 0 to 40 hours contract and each week varies.
they at tax creidts had told her to work out an advrage cost which she did , to include the cost for her two children.
her total cost for childcare for two kids was 110 per week , this included trips for meetings and school holidays etc..

only things is this year for renewel she was taking off the childcare for one child as they will be entering into 4th year and wont require a minder after school so on advrage the cost will be 50 ish..

what she is worried about is this, some days her eldest child didnt go to the minder as she came home after school and let herself in, but with the work hours chaging every week it was impossible to let tax credits know ( they didnt want to know each week), so now she is scared she will be in trouble as the claim is for two children. her minders contract says £5 for take to school and £3 per hour after.. on a as and when needed basis. is she in trouble for her eldest child coming home instead of going to the minder as what is the legal age for a child to be at home alone? her daghter is 13 ? thats why she marked her down also as since her childminder hours are as and when needed it was hard to come up with a cost. please help.

princessdon

Is she receiving full credits for childcare?

If so (and if they have sent a letter to your friend they will contact the childminder too to ask for attendance), then just say you made a mistake.

It's hard to work out childcare in advance so all she can do is average and then advise them of a change in circumstances if it goes over or under.

There is NO legal age to leave a child alone (even a 5 year old) - it is what is reasonable as some children may have learning difficulties. 13 is perfectly acceptable to be left alone a few hours and not go to a childminder if they have no disabilities. In fact it may be why your friend got the letter as I suspect that people would question if a 13 year old attended a childminder after school.

Icequeen99

It depends, did she claim the £5 or £3 from tax credits for the days when her child didn't use the childminder?

If so, then yes she may well have an overpayment. Compliance will ask the childminder how much has been paid to her over the year and then will look at whether that matches up to the £110 per week she has been claiming. It is average, so if some weeks she paid £60 and others £160 then that would be ok, but not if over the whole year her average was not the £110 she claimed.

It is a messy area though.

IQ