Nursery World - Case study: Laurels Day Nursery, Barnsley

Linda Mills, who runs the Laurels Day Nursery and the Kids Come First out-of-school club in Barnsley, throws up her hands at the Inland Revenue's claim that childcare tax credit fraud has not increased. She is pursuing 8,500 of bad debts, much of it the result of parents claiming tax credits and then failing to spend the money on childcare, or insisting that they will pay her once their delayed payments come through.

She is pursuing 8,500 of bad debts, much of it the result of parents claiming tax credits and then failing to spend the money on childcare, or insisting that they will pay her once their delayed payments come through.

In most cases they don't.

She is taking several parents to court and excluding the children of non-payers. She says, 'The problem with taking people to court is that there is then a great deal of animosity towards the nursery, and it concerns me that parents can then make things up. We had one lady who ran up a bill of Pounds 900 and then said she did not like the nursery.'

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