Can you claim childcare vouchers if you don't have children?

Newly_retired

Or get your pension before you are of pensionable age? - or a funeral payment before your relative dies? or redundancy pay before you are made redundant?

onlyroz

I believe that you have to have a child, but that child doesn't (yet) have to be in child-care. So if I were you I'd wait until the child was born and then start stacking up the vouchers for when you need them.

rachbc

Yes the child has to exist and you have to be the parent - my husband asked if he coudl claim vuchers for my son (who he has parently responsibilty for) and was told no1

honeypop

To follow the HMRC rules, the person claiming the vouchers has to have (or have the main responsibility of) a child, you need to provide a copy of the birth certificate of the child, and the child has to be in approved childcare (from a list HMRC provides) and you also need to provide the registration details of that childcare.

honeypop

rachbc wrote: »

Yes the child has to exist and you have to be the parent - my husband asked if he coudl claim vuchers for my son (who he has parently responsibilty for) and was told no1

The wording we use at work, which was quoted from all the HMRC paperwork we got about it is:
Qualifying child – a child qualifies up to 1st September following their 15th birthday, or 1st September following their 16th birthday if they are disabled. The child must be resident with the employee and be the child or stepchild of the employee or a child for whom the employee has parental responsibility.
So your husband can claim them for your son.

samtheman1k

What if you changed nursery though, would that make any unspent vouchers unuseable? Also, if you have two children or more, then by giving the name/dob etc, that would technically make the vouchers non-transferrable, even if both were in the same nursery?

honeypop

As long as the new childcarer accepted the the same method of payment, you would just strat using them there instead, so you wouldn't lose them. It's unlikely that you'd have much unspent, seeing as you only get a max of £243 per month (per parent claiming, not child) and childcare is normally a lot more than than (obviously depends what care they are having though).

And the method we use at work, the 'vouchers' are virtual so no names on them, we just pay the amount via BACS to the childcarer with the childs name as reference, so if one month a parent wanted x amount to child 1's carer, and x amount to child 2's carer, then that's what we would do. If it was the same carer, we'd just adjust the amounts relating to each childs name.

In the cases I have dealt with, the amount you can claim barely covers one child, so two or more children isn't going to make a difference really, as the money will be 'taken up' by one only.

freebiequennie

I didnt realise this scheme was changing - how is it changing?

I have a 4mth old and go back to work on 31st May and myself and husband were going to start claiming the max amount of childcare vouchers through our individual works when I go back to work

so if its changing and I would be better off claiming before April if we had decided on a childcare provider prior to then who accepts the voucher could at least my husband register for vouchers as he is at work but not sure I could while on mat leave???

rachbc

Previously you got tax relief at the highest rate you paid - so if you were a high rate payer you got 40%, however they are changing it so you only get the equivalent of the lower rate - I think they are doing this by saying if you are a higher rate pyer you can only get less value in vouchers

yep jsut had a google

http://www.childcarevouchers.co.uk/News/Pages/Childcare-Voucher-changes.aspx

Seem a little harsh - think they could have made the changes so that everyone gets the same savings...but as a basic rate tax payer I'm jsut happy I can still get them

ab7167

I had to provide my daughters birth certificate before my employer would pay out, also had to had Childminders OFSTED number and his signature on the form.

So I'm guessing if I didnt have a child, they wouldn't pay...