Child Care Costs To Be Paid Direct?

[Guest]

hi,

 

just got back from a meeting and part of it was about Tax Credits,

 

SHOULD CHILD CARE BE PAID DIRECT TO THE PROVIDERS?

 

FULL DOC IS VERY LONG but if you scrol down past point 7 ,,,,,,,,

oh it says the last date for consultation ...5th Sept 08 mmmm bit late then lol

 

but it could be interesting to see what the Gov. decide about costs and who to pay

 

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/D/3/tax_credits_no12.pdf

 

but it is VERY LONG if any one else has info or from the NDNA ? also not sure when the Gov. is going to make the changes?

 

Andrea

[HappyMaz]

Andrea I think lots of providers have had problems getting payment from parents who have received the childcare element of the Working Tax Credits, but chose to spend the money on other things!

 

It will be interesting to see what they decide to do won't it?

 

Maz

[narnia]

I had two families recently asking me to sign forms for them to claim this,both for the full week of care..................and now both of them have changed their bookings to half a week each (best friends too, so am I being cynical to think they've worked this out together???).So they are presumably pocketing the difeerence.I'd be very happy to have the money paid direct!

[Guest]

hi narnia ,

 

this is one of the problems the gov. need to address

 

as this is happening quite a lot i have been told to give parents a reminder letter to change

their child care costs and that inland revinue contact providers to confirm registration details and

contract details (ok so it stretches it a bit but we do get spot checked!!)

 

with this letter in hand parents may think about what they are doing,

and if you feel like it (cross enough) you can also inform inland rev, direct to inform of changes?

 

payments direct could be by joint banking system

ie the Gov. pay ?% into an account and the parents pay the remander ?%

withdrawl can only be made by the child care provider by either bank transfure to own account or withdrawl cheque.

 

the green paper say there are too many WHAT IF's as in confidentuality to parents as to how much benefit they are entitled to.

but i told them that we are proffecionals and respect confidentuality etc

again its the parents who may not want their private tax credits shared with 3rd parties.

 

it will take the Gov. months to work out the best system

 

I THINK....

PARENTS have ?% deducted from wages

added to tax credits at ?%

then 100% paid direct to provider

 

then the provider gets 100% payed direct and no private information is shared with 3rd parties!!

 

i should change job but i didn''t think that was too hard to work out?

 

WHAT DO OTHERS THINK?X

[Guest]

I can see the advantages in being paid direct.

When these credits were first introduced we were warned by our Early Years team of parents visiting, booking full-time places, completing paperwork to get the all-important Unique Reference Number for the provider, bringing the child for the first day and then NEVER being seen again

 

It left a lot of childminders out-of-pocket and feeling cheated. I do know of childminders who have used the anonymous helpline to report parents who claim more than they should! (usually they book and claim for a full-time place then reduce the hours right down)

 

I have had letters asking me to confirm contracted hours and payments received from parents. I had 3 in one month and a deadline to return the information. Thankfully it was straightforward to complete and didn't throw up any further queries.

 

Another thing I warn new RCM's to be wary of - it was often the inexperienced who were targetted.

 

Nona

[HappyMaz]

It seems the Government have been thinking about this. In this week's Nursery World there's an article bout the Free Childcare for Training and Learning for Work programme which is designed to help parents who want to get back to work and enrol on a training course. Parents can claim up to £175 per week per child (or £205 a week in London) but the money goes direct to the provider. To keep the paperwork trail, both training provider and childcarer provide a weekly attendance report to prove the parent is attending the course, and the child is accessing the childcare.

 

Maz

[Guest]

Maz you r so on d ball

and correct (but wots new) lol

 

yes d Gov is thinking about this but it takes time

 

we will just have 2 wait n see x

[HappyMaz]

Maz you r so on d ball

and correct (but wots new) lol

Oh you make me laugh, Andrea! If only you knew me in real life!

 

As with all things the Government is involved in, it does take time to filter through, as you say. It is obviously easier to set up a system from scratch having learned from the difficulties of a previous system - I haven't heard of any plans to alter the way the childcare element of the tax credits are paid but if they did this I'm sure things would be easier for settings.

 

Maz

[Guest]

There is definately a need for change for the credits to go direct to provider in my opinion. There is so much fraud out there it is unreal and if this was sorted perhaps we could get a better hourly rate for children. I think free childcare is looming as long as there is a voucher scheme etc for freedom of choice and if they can eradicate the fraud it will not be as expensive as first thought.

I think all monies not handed to the providers should be able to be reclaimed back through inland revenue by providers and money deducted from the people who stole it in the first place.