My daughter has received a summons to do Jury service. She is a bit concerned about how she is going to manage it as she has a 18 month old son and looks after him while her husband works. They are on a low wage and can't really afford to pay for child care and my daughter does not really want to leave her son for an extended period of time. Apparently trials don't usually last over 200 days!!
Does anyone know if you can claim for child care for doing jury service? My daughter says as far as she can see you can only get out of doing it on medical grounds it doesn't mention anything about being a parent. I don't live near enough to help and I work full time.
I have never done jury service so have no idea what she might expect.

When I did jury service, my children were in school but others who had under school-age children were able to claim a childminder's allowance.  We were also paid travelling expenses and a subsistence allowance, no one was out of pocket by doing jury service and rightly so.  I don't know if the system has changed now though.

Last paragraph HERE. :)

I was called up twice whilst my children were toddlers and twice I refused to go, even though I did have a mother living closely and brothers I could call upon I wasn't going to leave my baby and toddler and be away for days or weeks and possibly overnight. Hopefully things have not changed, but I feel it is wrong for any mother to be called away from her children there are enough people in this country why pick on mothers with toddlers? If I were your daughter I would say there is no-one to care for her children but her and she does not wish to leave them with strangers even if day care is paid for, that is all I did and twice I was let off.

Now I would happily do it, but since my children have been independant and grown up I have never been asked - typical!

She didn't know if she was able to refuse? It is not that she doesn't want to do it but she hasn't got anyone to care for her son, and to get to the town by  9:15 then she will need to leave home at 6:30 to get the train as she doesn't drive. She doesn't use a childminder at the moment and doesn't know if she will be able to find one in time.
Lets hope refusing is still an option.

have a look at the faq on that link. She certainly can request to be excused but the court makes descions on individual cases. I managed to get off when i had moved house to another area at the other end of surrey and it would have taken me ages to get there they accepted time in that case. I would write in and go for all the reasons good luck

I'd write a letter asking to be excused and stating very clearly all the reasons why, lay it on thick if you have to, ie one child becomes distressed if seperated from you. OR turn up and look very strict, then you won't get picked ;)
I was not eligible due to a previous profession but the 10 years after leaving are now up so if I were called I'd hate it!!

helendogz - As your daughter doesn't drive it would probably make using a childminder near impossible as often they aren't that close by (suppose it depends where you live). I didn't drive when my son was small and it was quite difficult finding a childminder that had vacancies at all, plus one within walking/bussing distance.

I would agree with the others to contact the courthouse and see if her circumstances as a mother of a small child can get her excused.

If she does have to use a childminder make sure she gets a list of registered childminders from her local council (that's how it worked in Scotland about 14 years ago anyway). Private nurseries might be worth considering also. Not sure how keen either childminders or nurseries would be to have child for such a short time though. The problem with a childminder is if they get ill or go on holiday you are left with no childcare whereas at a nursery there is a range of staff to cover.

Child tax credits can be claimed for childcare also. No experience of this as I was no longer requiring childcare when this was brought in.

Ailsa

You can just postpone it for a year, this is what I had to do, they didn't ask why or anything like that.

I did it when I was 18 and was called again in my late 20,s but I had two small children and they excused me so didnt have to do it.