Childcare Vouchers/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

David_Michael

Luckily I work in a local authority but before they were pressed a couple of years ago they didn't offer this to employees, a bit remiss of the personel section I think. Once we pressured them they set it up.
Since then I have had 3 different child minders, nurserys etc and they all started taking the vouchers once I mentioned them and got the packs sent to them. For them it is no hassle. In fact for some it works out better as I normally get the vouchers a week before I get paid so the nursery gets them earlier than they would normally get a cheque.
The scheme we use is BusyBees but there are others out there as well.

mrbilbs

You will find that teachers are exempt from being able to join any salary sacrifice scheme.

I use them with my employer but my wife, a teacher was stopped from using them with the school.

She has contacted the local MP Anne Cryer and there is little if nothing that can or will be done.

mrbilbs

arethusa82 wrote:

Now my employer is saying that this scheme will affect my contributory pension.....it seems to me that instead of our personnel department taking the initiative, they are leaving it up to individuals like myself to do all the leg work before they will even entertain the idea. Working for a large University, I feel this is rather a disappointing attitude to take.

I think it does affect pensions and that is why teachers cant get them.

Splats_2

Yes, mrbilbs, teachers are exempt and my wife (a teacher) and I are extremely outraged by this.

My wife signed up to the scheme operated by her employer, a council, when they joined in April. We recieved two months worth of the full tax-free allocation of vouchers, but our third failed to arraive. After much casing of Busybees, I was told that the government have instructed them not to allow teachers to use the scheme. Apparently it is because their salary is set by an act of parliament and teachers cannot work for less than the salary prescribed in the act. Salary sacrifice is therefore not allowed. The whole situation seems ludicrous, and in a climate of teacher shortages, shouldn't the Government be helping teachers out with Childcare so that they could return to work?

We have tried contacting my wife's union (NASUWT) and the local rep took all the detaials since he did not know anything about it, but I cannot find any mention of them doing anything about this on the NASUWT website. It seems that teachers are being classed differently to everyone else.

One thought is that I was under the impression that the Police are also paid through an act of Parliament, but to my knowledge they have not been precluded from the scheme.

Very miffed about this to say the least.

MARTIN - given you think the vouchers are a great idea is there anything you can do to highlight the plight of the teachers????????

Beckipeg

Our employers run this scheme, but it came in too late to help when our children were younger.

We've made the financial sacrifice for me to be at home when our children are not at school. Although I do work part time it is only during school hours. For a number of reasons we've opted out of the state school system and it would be great if this scheme could be extended to cover school fees as well!

Guess I can dream, unless anyone has any ideas?

MSE_Martin

Splats I didn't know this about teachers - i am going to speak to some MPs

arethusa82

Martin, can you look into the contributory pension side of things as well? My initial rush of enthusiasm for these vouchers is waning rapidly. If I have to lose out on pension contributions is is really worthwhile entering into the scheme?

Thanks

Woby_Tide

it's all down to the employers whether they treat it as affecting your 'salary'. My employer included in the T&C's that pensions will always be calculated on our pre sacrifice salary incl any contributions/AVC's which are based as a percentage of salary. Payslips come out printed with the original salary shown as 'Base salary' or something yet the Taxable income part of the payslip only refers to post sacrifice salary

nmbash

I work for a BIG company that did set this up from the start, which was great - I got to use it for 3 months and noticed the difference.

However, we get a yearly benefits allowance that we can use to spend on critical insurance, life cover, childvouchers etc. These choices can only be amended once a year unless a 'lifetime' change occurs; ie dead, marriage, divorce. Child going to school is not in the list.

Since I only needed it for 9 months (child starts school in January) it was not worth me joining. My monthly childcare would go automatically from my salary to Accor (voucher people) where it goes to my account. Unfortuately, if there is a SURPLUS of money in the Accor account you cannot get a refund. At least my company weren't doing it. Since I will not be needing childcare once he goes to school I could not use the surplus that way.

Woby_Tide

hadn't thought about the school angle, that does make it a bit harsh to anyone having a child go to school during a 'flex year' especially if teh enrollment date is in April each year. i.e. any child going to school next september or January as above you will lose out on 6 or 9 months worth of benefit. Have they definitely said that it can't be classed as a life event? It isn't listed in ours either but the description does just refer to 'Life events include' but doesn't give impression it's an exhaustive list