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

Jus_H

ernie-money wrote:

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!

Hi,

They seem to be communicating this in a slightly inaccurate way.

a childcare voucehr scheme needs to be made available to all employees. however other conditions must also be met

• Your net pay after vouchers can not drop below the national minimum wage
• your net pay cannot drop below the lower earnigns limit (£84 per week or £4368 per annum)

because of this especially for part time workers or those earning close to the minimum wage, childcare vouchers are not an option. However those who do fall within this elelment should hopefully recieve support via the childcare element of the workign tax credit.

Hope this helps

Jus

ernie-money

[QUOTE=

Hope this helps

Jus[/QUOTE]

Thats lovely - thanks a lot for explaining that!

EMMA06

Thanks Jus!

Can you claim childcare vouchers for the nursery fees that I do pay, ie, the remainder of the fees that are not covered by the childcare element of the tax credits or is it one or the other?

Thanks x x

paragp

is there like a cash equivalent to the childcare vouchers? my dd's nursery does not take childcare vouchers and they do not plan do so ...
i feel that we are missing out on this saving.....

Jus_H

EMMA06 wrote:

Thanks Jus!

Can you claim childcare vouchers for the nursery fees that I do pay, ie, the remainder of the fees that are not covered by the childcare element of the tax credits or is it one or the other?

Thanks x x

Hi Emma,

As per prev message, if you claim childcare vouchers and claim childcare element of the WTC you may loose out, private message me and i can work out some estimations for you if your wish. alternatively call WTC helpline for advice

Jus

Jus_H

paragp wrote:

is there like a cash equivalent to the childcare vouchers? my dd's nursery does not take childcare vouchers and they do not plan do so ...
i feel that we are missing out on this saving.....

Sorry, there is no cash equivalent, the whole idea is that the govenment know you are using the money to pay for childcare. The issue is that for some stange reason your nursery will not accept the vouchers, if you let me know where abouts in the country you live i might be able to arrange for someone to speak to your nursery and possibly convince them to accept the vouchers

SAZZLEEVANS

Hi

Can anyone help. I am being a bit thick i think but cant get my head around this. My employer recnetly signed up to the Busy Beses Childcare voucher scheme. My question is if i want to use another nursery can i still get vouchers or do i need ro pursade my employer and the nursery i am interested in to do them. Is so is there an info i can give to them?

Thanks
Sarah

Jus_H

SAZZLEEVANS wrote:

Hi

Can anyone help. I am being a bit thick i think but cant get my head around this. My employer recnetly signed up to the Busy Beses Childcare voucher scheme. My question is if i want to use another nursery can i still get vouchers or do i need ro pursade my employer and the nursery i am interested in to do them. Is so is there an info i can give to them?

Thanks
Sarah

Hi Sarah,

You should be able to use the busy bees childcare vouchers at any registered childcare provision. Your childcare provider does have do agree to accept them but very very few refuse. Your employer or the busy bees website should have some info for you. But to be honest if you just ask the nursery, chances are they already know about them and possibly already accept them.

Hope this helps,

Jus

Remember to click the scales!

pannetteb

Hi just wondering if anyone could help…

At the moment we are waiting on an appeal in my partner’s IB, so therefore do not qualify for the childcare element in or tax credit award.

I was wondering if I should get childcare vouchers through my employer to help me pay for my son’s nursery place as my partner is not fit enough to do so.
My employer gives us the option to opt in buying these vouchers on a monthly basis, just like how we can buy shopping vouchers or health insurance.
I not sure if this is the same as salary sacrifice…. I do not know whether I should use the awarded WTC of £122 per wk to pay the nursery and top up the additional £8 per wk…. or to get the vouchers. From what I have read salary sacrifice means that your gross income is reduced… I do not know if this is the sane case with buying these vouchers from your net salary and how this will be seen for means tested benefit purposes, such as HB/Council Tax benefits

Hope I make sense!

Heather_Heelis

MSE_Archna wrote: »

This thread is specifically to discuss the content of the

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

To discuss or ask a question about the article: click reply

For the old thread click here

I am a childcare provider and I need to know if I can register with more than one voucher company?