Childcare help

sx_turbo

Evening all,

Our child minder has just literally this very moment) served us written notice advising as of the first week of may she is no longer going to look after our child, she told us she is changing careers. This is fine she can do what she wants.

However, due to the current covid-19 situation my wife has been put on furlough and I am working from home. And government advise if that unless we are key workers we need to look after own children. Again this is fine we love our child.

My wife pays for the child care while I do all the rest of the bills (childcare is as much as our mortgage per month). As she is on furlough she is only on 80% pay, so we spoke to the child minder and not wishing to leave her out of pocket in these current circumstances we offered to pay her 80% also.
My wife is off for at least the next 3 weeks and the child minder has 1 weeks holiday over the next month (she doesn't charge whilst she is on holiday).
When we started childcare with her we payed 1 weeks deposit . So it transpires that from now she will not have our son.
I do feel slightly ripped off that she has waited for us to pay for this month's child care knowing that she was no longer going to be looking after our son.

Now to the actual question, am I entitled to ask for my money back that we have paid for the month ahead?

Aylesbury_Duck

I think you've made a reasonable offer but I'm afraid I don't think you're entitled to ask for your money back.  Depending how far you want to push it you could look at small claims action but is that really a route you want to go down?  I think you might struggle to succeed anyway. 

Undervalued

sx_turbo said:

Evening all,

Our child minder has just literally this very moment) served us written notice advising as of the first week of may she is no longer going to look after our child, she told us she is changing careers. This is fine she can do what she wants.

However, due to the current covid-19 situation my wife has been put on furlough and I am working from home. And government advise if that unless we are key workers we need to look after own children. Again this is fine we love our child.

My wife pays for the child care while I do all the rest of the bills (childcare is as much as our mortgage per month). As she is on furlough she is only on 80% pay, so we spoke to the child minder and not wishing to leave her out of pocket in these current circumstances we offered to pay her 80% also.
My wife is off for at least the next 3 weeks and the child minder has 1 weeks holiday over the next month (she doesn't charge whilst she is on holiday).
When we started childcare with her we payed 1 weeks deposit . So it transpires that from now she will not have our son.
I do feel slightly ripped off that she has waited for us to pay for this month's child care knowing that she was no longer going to be looking after our son.

Now to the actual question, am I entitled to ask for my money back that we have paid for the month ahead?

If you have paid up front for a service she now won't provide then yes you are entitled to a refund. However I am not very clear if you have? Are you saying that had you known she was stopping you would have only paid for 3 of the last four weeks so as to recover your week's deposit?

sheramber

If you are choosing not to send your child for the weeks you and your wife are at home  then I would expect you to have to pay for those weeks that she is available..