Can anyone help ?

[onamouse]

I'm asking for a friend whose daughter tragically died in an accident last month. The daughter was married with a 6 month old baby - the baby is with his dad. His dad needs to return to work, and friend would like to help to care for the baby during the day. She works full time and can't afford to reduce her hours and go part time until she knows if she'd be entitled to help.

She cant' get a CAB appointment until next week and is obviously still in a state of shock so finding it hard to work out what to do next.

She's found another, cheaper place to move to and her landlord is about to rent out her home - but if there's any way she'd get financial assistance she'd prefer to stay where she is - does anyone have any ideas?

[niceguy2]

Unfortunately I don't think as the grandparent there is any financial help. Can dad help out financially? He should now be entitled to tax credits, child benefit etc. So maybe he can offset the costs? Afterall, he would have to pay someone to look after his daughter anyway.

[onamouse]

He's considering leaving his job as childcare too expensive.

If friend was having to leave her job to care for the baby - there would still be no helpf or her?

[niceguy2]

No, the only thing your friend could possibly do is become a registered childminder then the dad could possibly claim up to 70% of whatever she 'charged' from the tax credits people.

Much will depend on what his personal circumstances are though and what the shortfall is from your friend whether or not the above is a viable option.

[purpleroses]

If your friend's income is low she should be able to claim tax credits and/or housing benefit. But she'll be treated as a single person which I think means she'd have to work at least 24 hours to qualify. (I could be wrong on the number of hours)

[IneedAgoldenNickname]

As I recall you can't register as a childminder and be paid by tax credit payments if the only child you care for is related to you. This may have been changed though.

I'm sorry to hear of your friends loss, and hope cab can help.

[purpleroses]

I think the rules on letting a registered childminder charge for a child they are related to (and have it paid for via tax credits) vary between local authorities - your friend would need to ask. But even if not, the dad might be able to afford to pay her a bit, if he'd otherwise have to pay for nursery or a childminder.