Charging for being late

[rasharoon]

I've a parent who often picks up her Son 5-10 minutes after contracted time. I put up with this as I allow for traffic. A couple of times now though, she has been either 35 mins or 45 mins late. Do I charge? I have said to her that by having her Son for longer outside of the contracted hours means I'm not covered by my insurance (NCMA) should he have an accident. Now have to admit to bluffing this as wasn't sure if this was true - can someone advise.
Also, I do state in my policy that should a parent be more than 15 minutes late on 3 separate occassions during the week, then there will be a late collection charge of £5. With her being 5/10 minutes late each day then this doesn't apply but by being half hour or more late, surely I can charge as I'm not a charity.
What are people's thoughts and how would you charge (if you do)?
Thanks

[june]

She is sneaky!!! Im too soft for my own good but this forum is helping me loads, so although Im no help Sorry , you have come to the right place and you will get advise on here from other minders

[deeb66]

I had a parent that used to do the same to me so I sat and spoke to him. I explained I didn't mind every now and again as I understood that sometimes things outside their control and make them late (traffic, trains etc).

I gave him the option to increase the contract hours or pay a late collection charge. To begin with he said he didn't need the extra time so I got out the attendance register and showed him how many times he had been late in the previous couple of months.

I then explained that my late collection charge would be £20.00 for every part/full half hour he was late. He still declined the change in contract hours but surprise surprise he was never late again.

In fact he started to arrive 5-10 mins early every day

Perhaps you might want to consider doing something like this.

Dee

[fionamal]

I had this problem earlier in the year with a parent as well. She would "forget what the time was" so I started adding on the extra time to her next months invoice at a higher rate . This went on for about 2 months until she decided that she couldnt afford the extra money and started to come on time or early on the odd occassion.

On one month she had an extra £45 to pay as she wasnt just being late by 10 or 20 mins but by hours most days.

Later found out she was having an affair so that explained the lateness every day.


Sorry rambling on now.

[rasharoon]

Just to add that the Mum was on a days holiday today from work and was still late (the usual 10 minutes). She apologised for being late and I threw in that she had been late all this week. She admitted to being poor with timekeeping and that work has been keeping her busy.
Anyhow, I had to give her the invoice for next week so what I did for the 35 minutes was divide her hourly rate by 60 then multiplied it by 35. Came to the grand total of £2.04 (whoopee).
I'll be renewing her contract for January so will have to have stern words about her hours.
Thanks for your advice.

[helen1980]

I'm currently writing my policies and have done one for late collections. I will be charging £5 per half hour or part thereof. The odd few minutes i wouldn't charge for but hopefully the fee will deter late arrivals anyway.

[lisaurry]

Hi there,

If you've written it into your contract, I would definately start charging her. If you do it regularly (as often as she is doing it), then she will get the message - or even if she doesn't at least you know you're being paid for it.

If you leave it, you will get more and more frustrated. It's not your fault she's not a good time keeper. In fact, why not start the new year off by sending out a memo to parents about late fees - and that you are implementing them from 2008?

Good luck
Lisa x

[deeb66]

rasharoon said:

Just to add that the Mum was on a days holiday today from work and was still late (the usual 10 minutes). She apologised for being late and I threw in that she had been late all this week. She admitted to being poor with timekeeping and that work has been keeping her busy.
Anyhow, I had to give her the invoice for next week so what I did for the 35 minutes was divide her hourly rate by 60 then multiplied it by 35. Came to the grand total of £2.04 (whoopee).
I'll be renewing her contract for January so will have to have stern words about her hours.
Thanks for your advice.

I can understand why you have worked it out this way but charging so little for her lateness will not make her change her ways as the extra money is of little inconvenience to her but the time is a huge inconvenience to you.

I think you should at least charge her a set amount for every part/full half hour that she is late. If you don't want to make the charge too high then you could charge something like £5.00 for every part/half an hour late.

You will find this will help her with her time keeping as she won't want to be charged at least £5.00 every day as it will soon add up.

Obviously it is up to you and you have to do what is right for you anr your setting but this woman is taking advantage of you (whether she means to or not!!!) and will continue to do so all the while she thinks she can get away with it and you will end up feeling really resentful - I know I did .

Dee

[manjay]

I too think you are being way too kind!! I have put in my policies that I will charge £2.50 for every half hour(or part of) but am thinking this should be more like £5.

Amanda xx

[fionamal]

I have in my policies that its will be £5 for every 15 mins over the collection time. That way they make sure theyre on time or it can get quite costly.

Im quite soft and dont really mind if they phone me to say that theyre stuck in traffic as it can hapen to anyone but its the ones that dont phone and are late all the time that annoys me.

All I can say is make the charge worth while, after all its classed as overtime to us, just like if they work on at work they get overtime pay.