unusable childcare vouchers?

balancelife

Hi all,

my husband was claiming the childcare vouchers from his employer under one scheme and they sent an email round saying that from the next month they were switching to another scheme and he needed to sign up with them instead.

So, he signed up with the other scheme but there is a balance of £190 in the other account. we didnt think too much of it as we thought we could just carry on paying out of the first scheme until it was empty and then start using the new one.

but, although our sons nursery were fine with the switch our daughters after school club say that they can only use one scheme (something to do with their committee saying so). they said they will look at moving to the other scheme if enough people are asking etc.

we were going to start paying out of the new scheme for our son (£180 a month) and using the old one to pay the afterschool stuff until the account was empty (around £30-£40 a month), but then we were wondering what would happen to the balance in the old scheme if the afterschool club suddenly change providers?? so maybe we would be better off paying our sons bill from the old scheme one more month and starting hers in cash?

got me thinking - I know you cant transfer from scheme to scheme or withdraw your money, but what happens if your child care provider decides not to accept your vouchers anymore? what would you do with unused money??!

we shouldnt have a big balance I know but we needed a bit of a reserve in case we needed an extra nursery session and also as we only pay term time for our daughter and it varies, plus work messed up the start date when we signed up last year!

balancelife

Does that make any sense to anyone? Sorry!

MX5huggy

balancelife wrote: »

Does that make any sense to anyone? Sorry!

No not at all.

I get a thing that looks like a cheque every month for £243 that I give to nursery, the nursery have no control over who supplies the voucher the employer does that. The nursery get vouchers from lots of different schemes, I know they like mine because it is 1 voucher for the full amount. Others have a fistful of £10 vouchers. The voucher is valid for 13 months.

corbyboy

balancelife wrote: »

we shouldnt have a big balance I know but we needed a bit of a reserve in case we needed an extra nursery session and also as we only pay term time for our daughter and it varies, plus work messed up the start date when we signed up last year!

How much more are you buying in vouchers than you spend each month? You shouldn't be using it like a savings account and shouldn't keep a "buffer" as you are at risk of losing it.

The after school club are being very awkward. They can be registered with as many voucher providers as they want. They are just being lazy and it's very bad customer service. I don't expect they will swap voucher providers without giving you a lot of notice, or else they will end up with a lot of angry parents!

Just use the old ones as soon as possible.

MX5huggy wrote: »

I get a thing that looks like a cheque every month for £243 that I give to nursery, the nursery have no control over who supplies the voucher the employer does that. The nursery get vouchers from lots of different schemes, I know they like mine because it is 1 voucher for the full amount. Others have a fistful of £10 vouchers. The voucher is valid for 13 months.

There are many voucher providers but the care provider has to be registered with each one to be able to accept their vouchers.

balancelife

Our sons nursery is £180 and after school varies between 20-40 and nothing during school breaks. We transfer £200 a month but there was a problem the first month and it was not set up in time to pay nursery so we had the extra there. Should have adjusted payments I know but it was such a hassle to set up that I left it to pay for emergency childcare etc (like when my mother in law who looks after him the other day I work is ill).

I spoke to the school club again and they are still saying they can't have a 3rd provider so not much I can do. Since at least 6 other parents work for the same organisation I think the school will get some pressure to change it. I'm going to clear the balance ASAP paying for my sons nursery and then frustratingly have to make cash payments for after school and adjust down the amount we pay in.

I'm still annoyed that employers can change with a months notice and v relieved the nursery were ok. These vouchers are a pain!

We do all ours online, no paper vouchers here so I don't know about them. Thanks for your thoughts guys