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

pinkladyof66

my employers dont operate the 12 month policy you can stop the vouchers at any time is this the norm ?

onlyroz

You might find the vouchers helpful for after school clubs or holiday clubs, so you should consider paying in for more than a few months.

lilian1977

Does anyone know if Computershare have been affected by the RBS glitch? I usually have my vouchers by now and I haven't had anything.

rpc

Mine were created and the payment made as usual this month, no different to any other.

Ingle

Does anyone know if there is any way at all to get the money back from a voucher scheme?

I was claiming the full amount to pay for nursery for my two children. When one of my children was abused at nursery I removed them both immediately. Given the circumstances we never want to use childcare again.

My employer wouldn't let me exit the scheme and so we now have thousands in childcare vouchers that we will never use. It's not money that we can/could afford as we have now had to arrange our circumstances so one of us stays at home looking after the children. We are down to one wage but have still had to fork out for the cost of childcare.

Any ideas please?

onlyroz

How old are the children? You could use the money to pay for after-school clubs in the future. Have you also considered using a childminder?

rpc

HMRC permit refunds in "exceptional circumstances" only but this must be done through payroll to ensure that tax and NI are deducted properly.

It is at your employer's discretion and AFAIK their decision is final. If your employer would not let you exit the scheme immediately, I doubt they are going to be flexible enough to agree to a refund.

You will probably need to write off the money or find some other way to spend the vouchers as onlyroz suggests.

Ingle

Thank you. We won't need the money for after school clubs as we don't want to use them. We have changed our circumstances to not use childcare.

I am no longer with he same employer. I had to move jobs to enable the change.

I guess maybe a letter to my MP? Not sure what else to do. It's not a situation I imagine they thought of when setting up the scheme, and just doesn't seem 'right'. We would of course expect to pay the tax and NI, which is a simple enough calculation if the childcare voucher agencies were set up to do it.

onlyroz

Have you tried contacting the voucher provider and explaining your circumstances to them? I have heard of some voucher providers giving refunds, although you would have to pay back any tax savings you have made.

Kira000

I have a quick question. My DD is now coming on 6m and due to start at a nursery when i go back to work. I am considering joining our company SS Voucher scheme, but reading the blurb, they say if you go on mat leave again, your Mat pay is based on the reduced amount after the SS, which i understand. But, they also say you dont accrue any vouchers while you are off, as your pay isnt high enough to make deductions. This doesnt quite make sense to me, as it seems win win for them. Surely its either lower MP, and they still pay the vouchers (as i'm taking the hit for them), or full MP, and no vouchers. or am i being a bit thick? Anyone?