Parents on Daycare Assistance

[Unregistered]

I have had 2 subsidy families, both times everything went fine. Here in Nevada they have to turn in a pile of paper work at there appt to get approved, then they send out the certificate saying how many hours they were approved for. I kept the sign in and out sheet here with me and they signed in and out every day, signed the bottom and I mailed it off every month. The biggest problem that I saw was that the checks take a month to kick in when you first start a child, but then I got paid every month. Our agency was really good about paying us on time. (lucky I guess)
The need for susidy is far less common where I live than other parts of town. I would take a subsidy family again.
I think families dont understand that they are responcible for what ever the subsidy doesnt cover. They automatically think that they will be 100% covered. I had one mom who way over paid me (waiting for the subsidy to kick in) and I just treated it as a credit and let her use it up. I think subsidy is hard to come by these days, our agency has a waiting list now. The two familes I have had were treated no diffrently than my other familes. (I know thats not always the case).
Im so sorry that you have had such bad experiences with subsidy.
Debbie

[3girls]

In my state if you have even one subsidy family you have to maintain a sign in/out sheet and every parent has to sign in and out every day. I just don't want that hassle I keep my own attendance sheet where I check off whether the child was there that day or not.

[christinaskids]

I havent had too many problems with state pay. I have had a few people start their kids saying they get dc assistance and come for two weeks and bail out on payday. Not anymore. I let everyone clearly know that they are private pay until i get an approval letter and i can pay them back if i was overpaid. I havent had a problem since. All of my state pay clients were single moms just struggling to survive and were very appreciative of having someone that they could depend on.

[Meeko]

In Utah, they warn us to get funds up front. If a parent comes to me and says they are state, I fill out the paperwork for them to turn in, but not a second of care is given unless they pay up front (I reimburse if necessary after the state pays) or they wait until the state puts the fund on their card.

A few years ago, we were warned of a scam, where moms would go to the welfare office and pick up the child care forms that were just on a table. They weren't even eligible for funds, but would take the form to various providers and find one gullible enough to assume the funds were coming. they would then disappear when the provider would start getting concerned that funds were taking too long to be issued. The moms weren't even turning the forms in. They knew they could possibly get a few weeks of care for free before moving on.

So my rule applies to state parents as well as self-pay parents. Not one single second of care without payment in advance.

Now once ON assistance...getting paid is a breeze. Just transfer funds from their welfare card directly to my bank account...easy peasy. And a web site so we can check the money is going to be there on the first. We can even get the parents to add us to their "My Case" account and we can then see if they have turned all the necessary paperwork in. No more excuses and blaming it on their case worker!!