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

rpc

flexiblefish wrote: »

You could have simply replied indicating that the government has not announced a date yet.

Like I did in the post immediately above yours?

paul2louise

I am totally new the the childcare subsidy. My husband works full time and earns about 30k. I work 8 hrs on a Saturday so we only use the 15 free hours for my son. When he starts school in September I was hoping to get a part time job and this may require some pre or after school or holiday club costs. Are we eligible for any gov help. We only get child benefit at the moment.

onlyroz

paul2louise wrote: »

I am totally new the the childcare subsidy. My husband works full time and earns about 30k. I work 8 hrs on a Saturday so we only use the 15 free hours for my son. When he starts school in September I was hoping to get a part time job and this may require some pre or after school or holiday club costs. Are we eligible for any gov help. We only get child benefit at the moment.

You can use childcare vouchers to pay for after-school and holiday clubs.

wolvoman

I'm a higher rate taxpayer, so therefore only eligible to buy £124 a month in tax free vouchers.

But if I make additional pension contributions to get below the higher rate threshold, does anyone know if I can then claim the £243 of vouchers a month tax-free like basic rate taxpayers do?

rpc

wolvoman wrote: »

But if I make additional pension contributions to get below the higher rate threshold, does anyone know if I can then claim the £243 of vouchers a month tax-free like basic rate taxpayers do?

Only if made through an occupational pension, and changes to entitlement only take effect when your employer carries out the basic earnings assessment at the start of the new tax year.

If your employer has based the assessment on the information available at the time it
is carried out, it will be valid until the end of the relevant tax year, even if your
circumstances change during the course of the year.

Full details are in: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/367098/employee-qa2.pdf

edit: in theory, there is a fudge where you increase pension conributions prior to the earnings assessment, then reduce them after. Because the earnings assessment holds for the year, your entitlement wouldn't change. Don't know if anyone has actually done that though.

BeardySB

Hi,


Currently my childcare (<£243/mth) is covered by vouchers from my salary. My wife and I are planning having another child which will push our childcare costs over the £243/mth limit. My wife is eligible for the voucher scheme as well.


With the changes coming in autumn, I am thinking of splitting our childcare now to get 1/2 our current childcare from my employer and the other 1/2 from my wife's employer. This would mean we are both in the scheme when we have our next child. Is this the best way forward or would you advise my wife joins the new Tax-free scheme?


thanks

rpc

Between the two of you, you need to chose whether to be in the new scheme or the old one. You can't have one parent in one scheme and the other in the other.

If you expect the new scheme to be better, join it.

If you expect the old scheme to be better, make sure you are both in it before the cutoff date.

You can both claim full vouchers now and build up a little stash to spend later. Your wife starting now would also mean she would continue to receive the vouchers while on mat leave.

paul2louise

onlyroz wrote: »

You can use childcare vouchers to pay for after-school and holiday clubs.

Thanks . I don't know if my husbands employer offers vouchers. Would I need to work a min number of hours to claim vouchers for me . I work for mr A.

Thank you

OpenEyes

I am a small employer and would like to set up the childcare voucher scheme within my company, I dont want to use an external voucher provider, my staff have already identified the childcare provider they would like to use, how do I go about setting up and administering the scheme inhouse ?.

Bimwhoop

To cut a long story short, I am currently banking up vouchers which are currently at 2.5k as I am going to put my twins in childcare from September 2015. I used the vouchers previously for my four year old son successfully. My wife is terminally ill and is expected to pass away before the end of the year which is why I am taking advantage of banking up now for when times get hard. My problem is I have received a letter today from my employer Royal Mail in conjunction with Childcareplus informing me they are to cease any additional vouchers being banked up due to the high amount banked already. I have every intention of using the amount when needed which will be pretty soon. And to be honest it is hardly a large amount with the current costs of childcare and will probably only last me two to three months.

Can they change this without my consent? And is there a limit to how much I can bank up? Any help appreciated.