Childminders charging half fees when they are away on holiday.

Yorkshire-Lady_3

I am a chldminder and have been for 14 years.
I have 2 ways of charging.

1 - Half fee's for all holidays. This is for Teachers who have 13 weeks holidya a year. They get paid for 52 weeks, so I charge half fee's as 13 weeks is too long to go without payment. This also means that the place is stil available for them, and should they want to use it at any time, that's fine. Some may use one day a week, others may only have a few hours prior to going back to work to get last minute things sorted.

2 - Full fees for parents holidays and NO fee's for mine. The majority of MY parents get child tax credits, so they are not too badly done by during their holidays. I am available for work so I charge. When I go away on holiday, I don't charge anything, because in theory, they have to pay childcare fee's to whoever is looking after their child while I'm away. In my opinion, you CANNOT charge when you are not offering a service.

This works well for me.

Sally x

JimmyTheWig

Dippychick wrote: »

I would rather they be realistic and not expect 4 weeks holiday a year.

The whole point of childcare is so parents can work. How is taking 4 weeks off paid reasonable to a family?

Do most people get 4 weeks paid on PAYE?

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6943667.stm I believe that paid workers have a right to 20 days paid leave plus 8 bank holidays.
20 days = 4 weeks paid leave.

So yes, they do.

JimmyTheWig

galvanizersbaby wrote: »

"If the childminder isn't getting paid for their holidays (wherther they have factored this into their hourly rate or not) they will have a pressure on them to not take a holiday, or at least cut it down to a bare minimum." - JimmyTheWig

Not sure exactly what you mean here - Surely if the childminder had already factored the holiday pay in to their hourly rate they would not have the pressure not to have a holiday or cut it down to a minimum as they would have planned it?
If they are under pressure not to have a holiday then they haven't managed their finances very well!

Well yes, maybe they haven't managed their finances very well.
Maybe external factors like higher inflation, higher interest rates, high price of oil, credit crunch have played a part.

Just because they planned to have a holiday when they worked out their fees doesn't necessarily mean they can afford one now. Or at least that they can afford one comfortably now.

Yes, in an ideal world where everyone did a budget and stuck to it then it wouldn't matter whether the holiday was paid for at the time or paid for in the hourly rate.
But if the holiday is paid for at the time it is up to the parents to budget for it (or make other arrangements), while if it is in the hourly rate it is up to the childminder to budget for it (or not go on holiday).


But I agree with someone earlier who said that if the childminder is taking a paid holiday they should give plenty of notice.

Mips

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6943667.stm I believe that paid workers have a right to 20 days paid leave plus 8 bank holidays.
20 days = 4 weeks paid leave.

So yes, they do.

Right. They are in paid employment.

Self employment is different.

Mips

Yorkshire-Lady wrote: »

I am a chldminder and have been for 14 years.
I have 2 ways of charging.

1 - Half fee's for all holidays. This is for Teachers who have 13 weeks holidya a year. They get paid for 52 weeks, so I charge half fee's as 13 weeks is too long to go without payment. This also means that the place is stil available for them, and should they want to use it at any time, that's fine. Some may use one day a week, others may only have a few hours prior to going back to work to get last minute things sorted.

2 - Full fees for parents holidays and NO fee's for mine. The majority of MY parents get child tax credits, so they are not too badly done by during their holidays. I am available for work so I charge. When I go away on holiday, I don't charge anything, because in theory, they have to pay childcare fee's to whoever is looking after their child while I'm away. In my opinion, you CANNOT charge when you are not offering a service.

This works well for me.

Sally x

Indeed - so why would they care when they are paying their specifically allowed Child Tax Credit to a childminder? It would not be their money, if it wasn't going to the Childminder. If you see what I mean. They wouldn't have more in their back pocket.

What about people who don't get much paid out of their childcare? So the bulk of their childcare fees is from their own hard earned cash.

For example, you were paying £200 out of your own money, then £100 from Tax Credits or similar.

And you were working for possibly, £50 a week after all the fees and everything else is taken into account.

In this case, what should you do? Forget it? Stay at home full time?

galvanizersbaby

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Well yes, maybe they haven't managed their finances very well.
Maybe external factors like higher inflation, higher interest rates, high price of oil, credit crunch have played a part.

Just because they planned to have a holiday when they worked out their fees doesn't necessarily mean they can afford one now. Or at least that they can afford one comfortably now.

Yes, in an ideal world where everyone did a budget and stuck to it then it wouldn't matter whether the holiday was paid for at the time or paid for in the hourly rate.
But if the holiday is paid for at the time it is up to the parents to budget for it (or make other arrangements), while if it is in the hourly rate it is up to the childminder to budget for it (or not go on holiday).


But I agree with someone earlier who said that if the childminder is taking a paid holiday they should give plenty of notice.

I agree with everything you've said JimmyTheWig, credit crunch affects anyone! My personal opinion is that it should be up to the childminder to budget for it as they are offering the service - only my personal op - as I said I would not use a childminder I prefer nursery for the availability, structure etc.. after all a childminder is one person who is a human being and is going to get sick take holiday etc - a nursery is staffed by more than one individual to allow for these things.

JimmyTheWig

Dippychick wrote: »

Right. They are in paid employment.

Self employment is different.

Your question was "Do most people get 4 weeks paid on PAYE?". PAYE, to me, imples paid employment.
In which case my answer was "yes, they do".

Mips

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Your question was "Do most people get 4 weeks paid on PAYE?". PAYE, to me, imples paid employment.
In which case my answer was "yes, they do".

And I thanked your for your reply, and simply stated that Self-Employment was different

Spendless

Dippychick wrote: »

Indeed - so why would they care when they are paying their specifically allowed Child Tax Credit to a childminder? It would not be their money, if it wasn't going to the Childminder. If you see what I mean. They wouldn't have more in their back pocket.

What about people who don't get much paid out of their childcare? So the bulk of their childcare fees is from their own hard earned cash.

Someone who had been a childminder said the same thing about tax credits to me recently, and I thought same as you Dippychick, what about those who don't get help from tax credits.

My mum is a self-employed hairdresser, with regular customers. I'm wondering what reaction she'd get if she said "can't do your hair next week Mrs Smith cos I'm on my hols, but it'll still cost you £xx for the shampoo and set I won't be doing".;)

galvanizersbaby

My mum is a self-employed hairdresser, with regular customers. I'm wondering what reaction she'd get if she said "can't go your hair next week Mrs Smith cos I'm on my hols, but it'll still cost you £xx for the shampoo and set I won't be doing".;)

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: love it!