Mrs T meets none of the conditions to be eligible for WTC on 16 hours work per week and so would need to be working 30 hours.

She is a childminder and has children with her for 27.5 hours per week. I'm tempted to advise her to include as part of her working week the time she spends getting the house ready before the first child arrives, cleaning up after the last one leaves, doing bits of shopping, laundry etc in her 'own time' which would bring her up to 30 hours per week, but I'd feel happier about doing so if there were some caselaw or other precedent.

Does anyone know of one?

Thank you.

Carer's Allowance takes account of time spent preparing for visit of person cared for and clearing up after they leave as part of time caring. So surely the same could be applied to working hours for a childminder. This was held in CG/6/1990.