Because changes in child care costs have to be notified
in-year in any of the circumstances at
CCM6310, it will be important that the
information you have is as up to date as possible. The CCRO will
have tried to contact the child care provider by telephone before
passing the case to you. Full details of any contact with the
provider will be included in the SIP.
If the CCRO has been unable to contact the provider, or if
the check was carried out more than 8 weeks before you take up the
case for examination, you should attempt to contact the provider
yourself. Even if the CCRO has confirmed the child care
arrangements with the provider, the claimant’s circumstances
may have changed since, especially if a substantial amount of time
has passed.
If you need to contact the provider at the outset, you should
tell the claimant(s) in your letter opening the examination that
you will be doing this. Remember that if you are examining a CoC
which may increase the maximum rate of entitlement
before it has been processed, you will need to use
the standard letter template TCC17 at
CCM21040, and include the text about
contacting the childcare provider. If the CoC has been processed,
or if it does not increase the maximum rate, you should use TCC2
(Childcare)at
CCM21035 which has the option regarding
contacting the child care provider.
