Parents of children who were absent from childcare centres for several days have complained after receiving exorbitant bills, saying medical certificates were often being refused.

“I have just received a bill for more than a €1,000 for what the childcare centre said were unused hours. I have presented medical certificates every time my child was sick but the carers told me the government is not recognising medical certificates,” a fuming 25-year-old mother said.

Another mother, who sends her two-year-old to a childcare centre in Sliema for nine hours a day, said she was asked to fork out €1,200 for unused hours. “I cannot understand how I can predict when my child will be sick and book the amount of hours accordingly,” she said sarcastically.

“As if it is not enough that we cannot go to work when our children are sick, we are now expected by the government to pay for this,” she complained.

Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said in Parliament on Monday parents would only be charged for the service if a child attended less than 90 per cent of the booked childcare hours and exceeded the 15 per cent absence allowance. He said it was the childcare centres and not the government that were issuing the bills.

According to the information tabled by Mr Bartolo, 848 children exceeded this absence allowance.

I have just received a bill for more than a €1,000 for what the childcare centre said were unused hours

The scheme, introduced in 2013, provides free childcare to working parents with the government footing the full bill for the private facilities on offer.  

Asked why medical certificates are not being accepted as proof of sickness to justify a child’s absence, Clyde Caruana, the chairman of the ETC, which is managing the scheme said: “It is not an issue of whether sickness certificates are accepted or not. A doctor’s certificate can be obtained for just €10.”

Emphasising that the government was after curbing abuse, he denied that parents were being made to pay for private childcare facilities when their children were sick.

“The scheme itself allows for absence, irrespective of whether it is due to sickness or simple absence. If a child is present for an average of 75 per cent of the hours booked, parents don’t have to pay anything,” Mr Caruana said.

Asked whether parents were being constrained to send their sick children to childcare for otherwise they would be billed, Mr Caruana said that was not the case.

“An average of three months fully paid by the government to make up for sickness is more than reasonable,” he said. “Children who are absent systematically stay away month after month, hence, it is clearly not about sickness,” Mr Caruana said.

Despite these assurances, parents are insisting that what Mr Caruana is saying is not reflected in the bills they received.