Childcare Vouchers/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

carpool72

Hiya,

Have finally found some useful advice on the inland revenue website (and it took some finding!) here

Hope the link works - it's my first attempt!

C

thedon

In line with previous posters, I feel it's only fair to point out the pitfalls of this scheme. Whilst the savings really can be great, you do have to think ahead to make sure you don't end up worse off (like me).

1. I decided to work a flexible week, still do my 35 hours, but take half day off per week to spend with my daughter. This resulted in a reduction in Nursery fees - and the change wasn't significant enough to allow me to change the value of my monthly voucher payment (a so called "Lifestyle" change).

2. Nursery's generally have less carers per class as children get older - hence fees reduce - again, you can't reduce your monthly voucher cost.

3. When children turn 3, they will receive a government subsidy towards childcare costs (i think towards each am / pm session) - this starts in jan 06, and again I don't think you'll be able to reduce your voucher payments.

4. and as mentioned in previous posts, if your child starts school midway through the year, you are still locked into paying the same amount accross all 12 months.

The savings can be great - but I find it more hassle than the worth of it, currently running with over £700 credit (accumulated since the changes above started in May) that I can't reclaim, and will have to put towards next years Nursery costs - I just hope I can spend it all, rather than lose it.

Rhiannon_of_Woolamai

You have to be very careful with salary sacrifice, especially if you are on a final salary pension scheme. If you leave your work, or retire or get made redundant, or take sick leave or maternity leave during the salary sacrifice payment duration then for the purposes of calculating your maternity pay, pension, etc your salary is reduced.

So if you had the child care vouchers, and took maternity leave during the payment time for example, you would receive less maternity pay (e.g your 90% of pay would be based on a lower amount).

There are other types of scheme around that all use salary sacrifice e.g. home computers, bicycles, etc... I personally would avoid all of them.

Rhiannon

themonks

Hi, Martin et al,i have heard of this on Jeremy Vine (R2) and my wife has see Martin on TV. We have both approached our respective companies who have reviewed the childcare vouchers scheme so that both our daughters can take advantage of nursey care/socialisation/educaton and will not be implementing it as, paraphrased, "salary sacrifice is too hard to organise and manage due to low uptake and company pension scheme issues" - ie we are both in final salary pension schemes.

Has anyone any advice as to how we can persuade our respective, large, trans-continental companies to change their perpective?

Any answers gratefully recieved
Many thanks
the monks

notsolucky_2

I pay about £25.00 per month on childcare as I work part time but in the school holidays this increases to probably £100.00 per month , how could I work out if this would benefit me?
If you have to sacrifice £50.00 per month would I benefit?
I wish there was more help available for couples who both work, its still hard to afford childcare.

crankup

I've been using the vouchers for a couple years now.
When our 1st daughter got to the age of pre-school grants and halved our costs, I phoned my HR and explained. No probs, they asked me what I wanted the value to be in the future. It changed that month.

They have changed it a little now. They ask us what figure we want and for how many months. So I go in 6 month chunks. Then reapply with the new amount.
Easy.

My Final Salary pension looks at my salary for the last 3 years of employment and takes an average. Thats gotta be 25+yrs away - I dont expect to be doing a salary sacrifice then, no worries!

Tuck In!

Spendless

I'd ask your HR Dept about how yours works notsolucky. We can change the amounts monthly and have also swapped DD nursery. For us they have been the best thing ever. They've enabled me to be go back to college to gain some skills. Just wouldn't have been affordable without them.

notsolucky_2

We have recently spoke about this to personel so hopefully they will get back to us soon.
Thanks to this brilliant website we are now armed with lots of facts and info.

bigmac17

Hi,

does anyone out there know who the several MOD departments are that MSE referred to in their article on Childcare vouchers? I am currently lobbying the MOD and really need this information if I am to get anywhere on behalf of all the Armed Forces families. I have asked MSE but did not receive a reply, many thanks.

martin15

Randomspam wanted to know if he could make use of the vouchers even though his wife is a registered childminder.

My wife is leaving her job as with childcare costs (even after the vouchers) it wasn't viable for her to continue. I advised my HR person that I no longer needed the voucher scheme (I hadn't actually joined yet anyway) as my wife was leaving her job and registering as a childminder.

I was surprised to be told that I can still register for the vouchers and pay the money directly to her. This is the case for any blood relative who is a registered childminder who has at least one other child as well as your own.

So the savings can still be made.

Following other discussions, it seems to me that some schemes tie you in for a specific period (my employer has a year) and some are more flexible. What would happen if, for example, I left my current employment and went self-employed. Presumably that would end any contract with the voucher provider?