Paid childminder fee during lockdown but childminder now closed business. Help please!

Kat78MFW

As you paid by a childcare voucher scheme, I'm pretty sure your childminder cannot just refund you in cash or by bank transfer. It may be worth investigating whether the childminder can refund back into your voucher account. This is because of the tax-free nature of the childcare voucher payment. 
However, please think about this before pushing to get your money back. You and your husband received money from the furlough scheme to help you in these unprecedented times. I wonder if your childminder was eligible for the self-employment support scheme? If they had been minding for less than three years, I don't think they get the government support.
We continued to pay our childminder her full fees from our voucher account throughout lockdown, even though my youngest was finishing there in July as she was leaving primary school and no longer needs childcare. She was a brilliant childminder and I did not want her to lose out due to lockdown. We have ended up with extra money in our voucher account as the after-school club closed and stopped invoicing so I plan to give the extra voucher money to our childminder as well, as a little thank you for all she did for our girls.
I suppose it depends whether your family are now struggling financially due to the pandemic, in which case its totally understandable that you need to put your finances first. But if you are OK but just frustrated that you didn't receive the service you paid for, then maybe you could just write it off to help someone else out in difficult times. 

silvercar

As you paid by a childcare voucher scheme, I'm pretty sure your childminder cannot just refund you in cash or by bank transfer. It may be worth investigating whether the childminder can refund back into your voucher account. This is because of the tax-free nature of the childcare voucher payment. 

Yes, the childminder can send the money back to your voucher account.

We continued to pay our childminder her full fees from our voucher account throughout lockdown, even though my youngest was finishing there in July as she was leaving primary school and no longer needs childcare. 

That was a generous choice you have made. You may not have felt the same way if your childminder had put pressure on you to pay a retainer for a service you then found she wasn't going to supply.

LouMitt

Kat78MFW said:

As you paid by a childcare voucher scheme, I'm pretty sure your childminder cannot just refund you in cash or by bank transfer. It may be worth investigating whether the childminder can refund back into your voucher account. This is because of the tax-free nature of the childcare voucher payment. 
However, please think about this before pushing to get your money back. You and your husband received money from the furlough scheme to help you in these unprecedented times. I wonder if your childminder was eligible for the self-employment support scheme? If they had been minding for less than three years, I don't think they get the government support.
We continued to pay our childminder her full fees from our voucher account throughout lockdown, even though my youngest was finishing there in July as she was leaving primary school and no longer needs childcare. She was a brilliant childminder and I did not want her to lose out due to lockdown. We have ended up with extra money in our voucher account as the after-school club closed and stopped invoicing so I plan to give the extra voucher money to our childminder as well, as a little thank you for all she did for our girls.
I suppose it depends whether your family are now struggling financially due to the pandemic, in which case its totally understandable that you need to put your finances first. But if you are OK but just frustrated that you didn't receive the service you paid for, then maybe you could just write it off to help someone else out in difficult times. 

We are aware of the tax free nature of the scheme we used and would make sure they were paid back to the account or seek advice on this. This money could be then used towards future childcare for our children which we are now needing to find. 

Financially as we were furloughed we have lost 40% of our income over the past 4months and so it seems a large amount to write off. In paying these payments we were trying to be considerate and to avoid this situation happening/safe guard us having childcare as soon as it could be resumed. 

As far as I am aware she had keyworker children and also received government money for other children who were eligible for free hours. She has been trading for more than 3 years. She has also chosen to pursue her second business, hence the closure of her childminding. It seems unfair she accepted these payments but we are unsure how it would be seen legally. 

Kat78MFW

As far as I am aware she had keyworker children and also received government money for other children who were eligible for free hours. She has been trading for more than 3 years. She has also chosen to pursue her second business, hence the closure of her childminding. It seems unfair she accepted these payments but we are unsure how it would be seen legally. 

Sounds as though she is not in too bad a position then, especially if she was able to claim the SEISS payment as well. So I totally understand why you want to get your vouchers back. Hope she agrees to refund. 

Kat78MFW

I have found this link that might be helpful to quote from when you write a formal letter to her. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nursery-and-early-years-sector-covid-19-restrictions-and-consumer-law/nursery-and-early-years-sector-covid-19-restrictions-and-consumer-law-advice
It is a document from the Competition and Markets Authority in response to the huge number of complaints received from parents about charges for childcare during lockdown. 
I think you should definitely get your vouchers back for the dates when the lockdown law stated that your children couldn't attend the childminder but she might be able to argue that you chose not to resume the use of her services once lockdown was eased. 
Hope the link helps - I only skimmed the beginning of it but it looked relevant. 

LouMitt

Kat78MFW said:

I have found this link that might be helpful to quote from when you write a formal letter to her. 

Hope this helps. 

Thank you for this

Kat78MFW

This seems especially important 
". Our view is that

where legislation or other lockdown measures mean parents cannot make use 

of these services for a period of time, it is likely to be an unfair and illegal

practice to warn or threaten to remove a child’s place unless the parent 

continues to pay full or substantially full fees during periods of lockdown. Also, 

despite the financial pressures caused by the crisis, providers should not

demand that consumers should pay high fees by warning that if they do not 

pay the fees the business will cease trading and/or livelihoods will be lost. To 

do so may breach consumer law"
quoted from this document https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cma-open-letter-to-the-early-years-sector
Good luck - let us know how you get on. 

macman

Was this a sole trader or a limited company? She doesn't appear to actually be insolvent, she has simply made the decision to cease trading. If so, and assuming a small trader, which makes her personally liable, there is no reason why she cannot refund you, and your remedy is therefore an LBA, followed by a small claims action if necessary. Her action seem to be a clear breach of contract.

LouMitt

macman said:

Was this a sole trader or a limited company? She doesn't appear to actually be insolvent, she has simply made the decision to cease trading. If so, and assuming a small trader, which makes her personally liable, there is no reason why she cannot refund you, and your remedy is therefore an LBA, followed by a small claims action if necessary. Her action seem to be a clear breach of contract.

Yes that’s correct she has made the decision to cease trading in favour of her second business venture.

Sorry for my ignorance, what is an LBA? 

Thanks. 

jamielutz1987

LouMitt said:

macman said:

Was this a sole trader or a limited company? She doesn't appear to actually be insolvent, she has simply made the decision to cease trading. If so, and assuming a small trader, which makes her personally liable, there is no reason why she cannot refund you, and your remedy is therefore an LBA, followed by a small claims action if necessary. Her action seem to be a clear breach of contract.

Yes that’s correct she has made the decision to cease trading in favour of her second business venture.

Sorry for my ignorance, what is an LBA? 

Thanks. 

LBA = Letter Before Action or Letter Before Claim

Explained here https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/small-claims/making-a-small-claim/

You will need to do this even if you've already complained. If the letter before claim doesn't resolve the problem, you can start your small claim online.

An LBA usually includes -

• your name and address
• a summary of what’s happened
• what you want the person or business to do about it
• how much money you want - like the cost of repair or a replacement - and how you’ve calculated that amount
• a deadline for reply - usually 14 days
• that you’ll start court proceedings if you don’t get a reply

An LBA is often enough to trigger a negotiation or settlement