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

Hippo

Mollie's_mum wrote:

However, I gave my Registered Childminder the info to read and she says she can't accept vouchers as she isn't Approved.

Hhhhmmmm.... Perhaps they don't declare their income. Vouchers are trackable

Mollie's_mum wrote:

I currently pay her cash

Now there is a surprise.

She doesn't want to accept vouchers as it means she would have to declare it.

Jus_H

BernadetteN wrote:

Any chance of informing me what the extra course is called that childminders are supposed to do? I am intrigued as I am a registered childminder and can and do accept childcare vouchers from ACCOR and BUSY BEES. There was no requirement for me to do any course as registered childminders are APPROVED CHILDCARE according to HMRC.

I've done a quick search on wwww.hmrc.gov.uk and came up with this list of APPROVED CHILDCARE PROVIDERS for the child care voucher / salary sacrifice scheme.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM22030.htm


If I wanted to accept the government 3 year old funding I would have to do a course which covers early years learning goals in the Foundation Curriculum. Is that what you are referring to? Most childminders see themselves foremost as carers of children and not teachers too so you'll find very few childminders with this qualification.

Any Ofsted registered childminder can accept the vouchers without having to do any additional courses. The approval scheme you refer to is only for childcare professionals who are not registered with ofsted (say because they only look after over 8's) and wish to have a method of allowing parents to use tax credits or vouchers

JacquiB_3

No-one has answered the first persons question re whether self employed people can set up a salary sacrifice scheme. I am self employed too and my husband already sacrifices salary and gets ACCOR vouchers.

alisonsmum

Mollie's_mum wrote:

I was so pleased when my employers took up the Salary Sacrifice Scheme in August.

I spend between £200 & £300 a month on childcare, depending if school hols or not, and was looking forward to making some well needed savings.

However, I gave my Registered Childminder the info to read and she says she can't accept vouchers as she isn't Approved. She didn't sound very keen at all - even though it would mean she would get paid quicker as I was going to do the e-voucher option. I currently pay her cash as I haven't got a cheque account due to being on a Debt Management Plan with the CCCS.

I'm gutted- £70 a month saving is not to be sniffed at.

Does anyone have any advice? Is she right - do Childminders need to be Approved-and what does this involve?

My girls have been going to her for nearly three years, but I must admit I'm tempted to try and find another carer who will accept the vouchers.

Any thoughts/advice would be welcome.

hi mollies mum, i am a childminder and have not had to take a special course to accept childcare vouchers. i think there may be some confusion over the working. 'approved' and 'registered' are the same thing. all your childminder needs to do is provide her ofsted registration number and in one voucher providers case the date she first registered and if they are paying direct in to her account of course her bank account details. it is all then done. my three parents all use three different providers, one pays direct to my bank account and the others provides vouchers which i phone in on a freefone number and the money is in my account three days later. i can recommend it.
i suggest you get the paperwork and let her read it through so she can see for herself there are no special courses or more paperwork. in fact there is less and it is easier to keep track of too.

ellatyler

Can someone tell me whether I could use this scheme in the following scenario.

My husband works for an employer. I am self employed.

We send our twins to the nursery of a private school We use our nursery vouchers to contribute towards the fees, and pay the extra £600 term ourselves.

Could we use these childcare vouchers from his employment to contribute towards these remaining school fees?
Thanks,
Ella

ellatyler

Can someone tell me whether I could use this scheme in the following scenario.

My husband works for an employer. I am self employed.

We send our twins to the nursery of a private school We use our nursery vouchers to contribute towards the fees, and pay the extra £600 term ourselves.

Could we use these childcare vouchers from his employment to contribute towards these remaining school fees?
Thanks,
Ella

EMMA06

Hi,

I rang Busybees to get an application form and they said that if I was receiving the childcare element of the tax credits, which I am, I couldn't do the childcare vouchers as well. Does anyone know if this is definitely the case?

Thanks.

ernie-money

Hi,
I have spoken to my employer, who is very good at looking after their staff, and after looking into this, they said that apparently they have to pay a certain amount of your salary, before you can claim any vouchers. I can't remember the exact figures, but say for instance that you have to get paid £90 per week in the usual manner, and are only able to claim vouchers on any pay over this amount. Their view on this was that in that case only higher paid staff members would benefit from the sceme, and therefore they did not want to start it.
Does anyone know anymore about this, if it's correct and if there's any way around it? As only work part time, I am not at the higher end of the pay scale and am therefore not sure that the vouchers would actually be of that much use to me if this is the case...
Thanks!

Jus_H

ellatyler wrote:

Can someone tell me whether I could use this scheme in the following scenario.

My husband works for an employer. I am self employed.

We send our twins to the nursery of a private school We use our nursery vouchers to contribute towards the fees, and pay the extra £600 term ourselves.

Could we use these childcare vouchers from his employment to contribute towards these remaining school fees?
Thanks,
Ella

Hi Ella,

Your husband would be able to claim the vouchers from his employer, only his entitlement. You are not able to get any voucehrs from your wgae/takings as you are self employed (not fair i know)

As for using the vouchers to contribute towards the private school fees, unfortunetely this is considered as education and therefore you are not able to use the vouchers to help you save money on them.... sorry

Hope this helps


Justin

Jus_H

EMMA06 wrote:

Hi,

I rang Busybees to get an application form and they said that if I was receiving the childcare element of the tax credits, which I am, I couldn't do the childcare vouchers as well. Does anyone know if this is definitely the case?

Thanks.

Hi Emma,

Basically if you are receiving the childcare element of the WTC then you are best sticking with it and not going for the vouchers. But just to clarify how it works....

Childcare element of WTC is an extra part of WTC whcih can pay upto 80% of childcare costs.
for an example lets say you only got £76 per month in the childcare element of the WTC and you decided to start taking childcare vouchers; you take the full entitlement £243 and make a tax saving of £76 per month (standard rate tax payer) - upon starting to take the vouchers you would have to declare a change of circumstances to the inland revenue - who after recalculating you tax credits would reduce them by £76 per month.

so to summarise whatever you save in tax you loose from the childcare element of the WTC and thus are no better off. - only consider taking the vouchers instead if you are receiving less than you would save.

Bit confusing but hope clarifies

Jus