Childcare Vouchers: cut childcare costs by £1,000/year Discussion Area

Judith_W

Just so ppl know, with care4 you sign up to say you don't change for a year but if you need to change you can select a reason and make a change as and when. If you can't do this, its because your employer is choosing to restrict.

becominganobsessivesaver

I get childcare vouchers through work (as an additional benefit, rather than paying out of my salary). We get £55 per week for an under 5 and £28 for an over 5. I am currently pregnant and will need to change the vouchers to my new child's name instead of my daughters to get the full benefit. I will be with the same provider. Is this likely to be a new registration, or will it be a continuation of the old one. I have another 18 months to work out what to do, but I am borderline higher rate tax payer!
My provider is Kiddivouchers.

dalepearson

This confirms what has been mentioned early - http://www.vouchersblog.co.uk/2011/08/17/will-my-childcare-voucher-entitlement-change-if-i-start-a-new-job/
So what does this mean in reality.
So today if your a 40% tax payer and signed up before the change you can currently get the full £55 a week, so thats a value of £2860. So if you then change jobs for what ever reason and stay in the same tax bracket you can now only claim £28 as your now classed as a new joiner, so thats a value of £1456. This is then a different of £1404. So what does this really mean in your pocket, so you can really see the benefit loss in real terms?

Anyone give an informed opinion?

ukclarkkent

hello all,

hope someone can help as i blatantly haven't much of this thread before posting and i'm in a bit of a spin about vouchers...

let's suppose i earn approx £47k and my girlfriend earns £37k. we're looking to put our baby into childcare for 2 days @ £45 a day. is it beneficial for us to sacrifice our pay to get £90 p/w worth of vouchers? i thought about my gf getting her max(£55) and me making up the rest. or would it be good to split it in half?

if there's online help you can point me towards then please do. i'll take some flaming as i haven't read this thread but have looked on various websites before coming here.

thanks in advance, me.

Savvy_Sue

I'm sorry, but I'm not sure anyone can tell YOU whether or not, in your situation, it's beneficial to take the salary sacrifice, or how you should split it if you do.

I haven't read the details lately, but I do have a colleague who's take a SS for other reasons (ie not childcare vouchers!) Things it affected were the amount the employer paid towards their pension, AND what was detailed as their salary when they wanted to apply for a mortgage. If we'd been in a redundancy situation, any redundancy pay would also have been based on the 'sacrificed' salary rather than the 'regular' salary.

However, they also paid less tax, less NI, and less student loan, because those are also based on the sacrificed salary.

Only you know whether any of those situations are likely to be relevant to you ... and then you can consider who should take the biggest 'hit'.

Oh, and I might have missed something because I'm not up to date on childcare vouchers themselves!

I<3MCR

I am interested, did you get any reply?:money:

swills007 wrote: »

I have been looking in to this but am wondering if it is the best thing to do. You can claim back child care costs anyway and get back up to 80% in tax credits. This would make the voucher scheme a bit poor as if yolu spent £1000 in theory you can claim back £800. Can anyone confirm my theory?

CJ100_2

Can someone help me with some advice please?
My daughter starts school next week and i don't know whether to stay with claiming tax credits or change to child care vouchers.
I can join the childcare voucher scheme where i work.
My average weekly childcare cost will be £84.00.
My salary is £30000 (there is only one household income).
My tax credits would be £22.05 per week £88.00 per month).
I have tried to use the calculators but i am still confused!
Any help would be gratefully received!
CJ

onlyroz

CJ100 wrote: »

Can someone help me with some advice please?
My daughter starts school next week and i don't know whether to stay with claiming tax credits or change to child care vouchers.
I can join the childcare voucher scheme where i work.
My average weekly childcare cost will be £84.00.
My salary is £30000 (there is only one household income).
My tax credits would be £22.05 per week £88.00 per month).
I have tried to use the calculators but i am still confused!
Any help would be gratefully received!
CJ

Childcare voucher savings would amount to the income tax savings on £243 (i.e. 243 x 0.2, assuming you're a basic rate tax payer).

Underscore

Apologies as I am sure this will have been covered before.

If a nursery is the nursery of a private school, then is there no point in me pursuing the voucher scheme? Since the vouchers won't be acceptable? (have my own company and thinking about setting up the childcare voucher scheme)

TIA

rpc

Why not ask the nursery? Vouchers can't be used to pay fees at independent schools, but I'm not sure the same is true for their nurseries.

If the nursery doesn't take vouchers, there may still be other things they can be spent on (after school clubs, summer activities, etc) but obviously not as much as nursery fees!