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I have a dcg here right now who is my first experience with DHS payments. I just received my first payment and it is more than I charge. Dcm gets a very high amount and a lot of hours. So ... What do I do since it is more than I charge? Reimburse DHS? Reimburse Dcm? Keep it as a credit for a week when she may fall short?
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IMHO, if you are charging less than what subsidy believes to be the lowest rate, you may want to raise your rates.
Generally they pay at the lowest rate possible within the average for your area.
I would not refund DCM. She has not paid anything.
If your conscience bothers you maybe donate to the local seniors center.
- Unless otherwise stated, all my posts are personal opinion and worth what you paid for them.
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Dcm is a special case. She gets the max, automatically, because of certain things. That is $3.40 here. I charge $25-$32 a day, which is pretty standard for here.IMHO, if you are charging less than what subsidy believes to be the lowest rate, you may want to raise your rates.
Generally they pay at the lowest rate possible within the average for your area.
I would not refund DCM. She has not paid anything.
If your conscience bothers you maybe donate to the local seniors center.Comment
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I agree, you may want to raise your rates. In PA our subsidy, referred to as CCIS, I think is based on the average most licensed home daycares in the area charge. If I reported to them that I charged a lower rate, that is what they would pay me.
If they overpaid me, I would just call them and let them know. They may take it off of your next check. But that way they can't come back and say you did anything wrong.Comment
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This- in our area DHS is cheap and slow to respond, so a lot of providers refuse to deal with them. I'd consider taking the amount over what you normally charge and saving it to use either for extra supply/ equipment purchases or personal use (date night fund?).Comment
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Hmmm... I'm not sure how much I can raise rates. If she was getting paid the normal DHS rates, I would agree, but she is getting $1.25 more per hour than the usual 100% rate around here. Like I said, just an unusual circumstance.Comment
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What circumstance allows someones kid to get more subsidy money than others?
The chart says 95% even if below poverty level with 10 kids. It seems they still think they are paying less than 100% of the lowest average rate.
If providers tell them it is too much, they will lower their rates for everyone. $3.40 is still below min. wage (yours will be $8.15 on the 1st of next month).
You are not over billing. They are paying their set rate across the board, to all providers willing to accept subsidy. They get federal money to pay that rate. Your tax dollars. They want providers to agree to take subsidy clients.- Unless otherwise stated, all my posts are personal opinion and worth what you paid for them.Comment
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If the child has special needs (even ADD in some cases) we are paid more from subsidy in Iowa. Maybe that's the case?Comment
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I would keep the extra money. Put it aside for when she doesn't follow though and your are out income. If that never happens I would think of the money as a bonus and either treat myself to a massage or put it back into DC by buying new toys or supplies.Comment
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I think I would call the office to speak to someone. I would be hesitant to keep the money. We had a sting here awhile back and several providers were arrested - I never got the nutty gritty so I don't know if they were claiming time they shouldn't have been (the child was out?) or they were getting overpaid and knew it?
I just have a personal policy that I only want to make the papers for good reasons - like winning the lottery:
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The dcm is of a certain heritage that is uncommon and I was told it gives her added benefits. I don't want to write more since you just never know who reads these.Comment
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If they are paying a higher rate- that would go to you, right? They are paying a specific rate for child care, and you are providing that care. Can you have a contract that reflects that rate for her, or do you have to have the same rate for all families in your state? (I'm license exempt so I'm not familiar with all those regations).Comment
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I have a situation similar, but not really..
I signed up to accept state pay in May and one of my DCP's was signing up to receive benefits at the same time. DCF told me it'd be less than a month to get me all signed up so I told dcm that I would be ok holding off on her payments until she was given her benefits from the state... and I would just charge my $25 per week late payment fee. I was hurting for money, but it would have all worked out with the payment.
Well, DCF actually took their sweet time and I didn't get set up until the end of July!
I ended up letting her wait all that time (I know, I know) so when I was finally ready to accept her payment, she had $3100 in the account and she transferred it all over at once so she overpaid by about $700... I just applied it towards future payments. Luckily, my state allows that.
And actually, she receives about $600 more per month than I charge. Lucky for me, she's been showing up later and later to pick up the kids (my rates are tiered based on pick up time) so I raised her rates and gave her a later pick up.Comment
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