Child Care Element Of Tax Credits

[Guest]

just wondered if anyone has any advice? i have just found out that a member of my staff is claimimg 2 days childcare from tax credits for my nursery even though the child has never set foot in the place! this is one of my pet hates as the system is shocking!! hardlly ever any checks one or two in 2 years-one was for 4 children apparently been at nursery full time for last year-never heard of them!! whycant the tax credits pay us direct it is so open to fraud!! should i approach staff member( bear in mind this is the one i discussed in topic"useless staff" (not my threAD) ive a funny feeling she isnt the only staff member doing this, really annoys me as i have to pay all my fees and its a big chunk of wages as my baby is with us fulltime!

[TORO]

I have the same problem i have 2 parents that have withdrawn thier children from the nursery, after a few weeks and i know that they claimed for tax credits because of the infor i gave, it is really annoying. I am soon going to call them that tax office has sent me list of names to confirm whether their children attend nursery or not , because they are claming down on people who are abusing the system.

[Cait]

I had a call from the tax credit agency about a mum whose son had come to us one afternoon a week and had then left for school. She had claimed - and was continuing to claim, full time costs for 2 years at a rate higher than we charge! BOY WAS SHE IN TROUBLE!

I had to tell them, over the phone exactly what days he'd attended - luckily it was all on the computer so I just opened the old register.

It's was census week for nursery grant children last week - could you casually mention in front of staff that tax credits was being looked into too - and what a lot of paperwork it all was (hehe)

[HappyMaz]

just wondered if anyone has any advice? i have just found out that a member of my staff is claimimg 2 days childcare from tax credits for my nursery even though the child has never set foot in the place! this is one of my pet hates as the system is shocking!! hardlly ever any checks one or two in 2 years-one was for 4 children apparently been at nursery full time for last year-never heard of them!! whycant the tax credits pay us direct it is so open to fraud!! should i approach staff member( bear in mind this is the one i discussed in topic"useless staff" (not my threAD) ive a funny feeling she isnt the only staff member doing this, really annoys me as i have to pay all my fees and its a big chunk of wages as my baby is with us fulltime!

Ooh dear this is so difficult. You're between a rock and a hard place - whatever you do will have consequences. I don't really understand how the childcare tax credits system works - how did you find out she is doing this?

 

I'm trying to think what I would do in this situation: I guess you have a few options:-

• Swallow your annoyance, pretend you don't know and say nothing - although I'm not sure whether this would have repercussions on you professionally if it should come to light later.
  
• Talk to the staff member and say you'll report her if she doesn't put things straight - although I'm not sure how you'll know she has done it!
  
• Report her - I guess you could do it anonymously if you didn't want to confront her.
  

I know how hard it is to decide what the right thing to do would be, let alone deciding to go ahead and do it. Ultimately I think only you can decide how to proceed - I guess it comes down to what your own personal beliefs are and how you'll feel if you just let it go. We all know that this kind of fraud goes on all the time - the difference here is that you know it is going on and it is happening right under your nose!

 

I don't envy you having to make this decision - but whatever you decide to do don't beat yourself up about it.

 

Maz

Edited January 18, 2009 by HappyMaz

[Guest]

Easy - report her. If it was any other kind of fraud (and this is what it is) or not a colleague would you be thinking twice?

[Cait]

She has put you in a very difficult position, and yes, it is fraud. If she was stealing this amount from you each week it would be a sackable offence, the fact that she is stealing it from the taxman means that we are all paying for it.

 

I think you either have to confront her or just report her. Obviously you don't feel completely comfortable about letting it lie or you wouldn't have raised it on here.

 

Good luck, whatever you decide to do, but remember, if you do nothing and she is taken to court, you could be an accessory as you know about the fraud

[hali]

oh dear a hard one not knowing her as Janny says report her but..(if it was one of my team - very tricky but honesty as to prevail - dosnt it)?

 

Good luck hun xxx

[Guest]

How did you find out she was doing this? Was it from a reliable source?

 

You are, understandably, having problems deciding what you should do, now that you have this information. If this information has come from a reliable source then, personally, if I were you, I would look into reporting it anonymously.

 

Hopefully once this information has been reported, the relevant authorities will get involved and contact you regarding her child's attendance at your setting.

 

My thoughts are that if she has got away with this (or thinks she has), whats to stop her telling her friends to do the same thing?? She may also tell them to put your setting down as the nursery the child is attending. If enough people do this, someone may catch on and start investigating if your setting has the space and staff to cope with all these children, and possibly whether or not you are involved in this fraud, and yes that's what it is, fraud.

 

I may be making a mountain out of a molehill here, but fraud is a criminal offence.

 

Sorry if this post has alarmed you in anyway, but these are my thoughts on it. Maybe others will think differently and say I am making too much out of it.

 

Good Luck

[Guest]

Report her, it's the only way to stop this type of fraud. I can't believe that the government doesn't issue every setting with a list of parents that are 'claiming' along with dates and amounts they are claiming for. I am sure the money theywould save would far outweigh the cost of admin.;

 

But by far the best and only fair way of ensuring that the paying of tax credits works is by

 

PAYING THE SETTING DIRECTLY.

 

Recently an MP said that there was no need to do this as there was no evidence that this was a problem!!! Is she mad? Who has she been asking. I believe every setting in the country could give her an example of parents not paying fees but claiming tax credits or parents claiming more or then they should. When are the government going to wake up and help the sustainability of the UK's childcare.

 

Maybe we could pay staff more if we didn't loose so much money each year through fraud and non-payment of fees.

 

 

Can you tell this is one of my pet hates!!!

[Cait]

It wouldn't be so bad if each setting had to sign the parents claim form to agree that the amount claimed was correct - surely that shouldn't be too difficult! Surely a check phonecall to each setting once a year isn't too hard either?

[hali]

very true Cait

[Cait]

I must say that I'm surprised that settings don't have to verify it - It's asking for fraud really for cash strapped parents

[Guest]

thanks everyone for your advice, decided to bite the bullet and tackle her face to face, was all prepared this morning and she phoned in sick!!! made it known casually to other staff that i was doing an audit of childcare payments along with head count (thanks for idea cait!!)

[Cait]

Hehe - I hope the gossip gets back to her!

[hali]

oh dear hope you get it sorted