Entitlement to Childcare Vouchers during Maternity Leave

Rich_by_Name_2

Hi,

Firstly, if I'm in the wrong forum then sincerest apologies and hopefully someone can point me to the correct one.

I wonder if someone who knows about these things could advise me please.

My wife and I are expecting our second child in July. She will be starting her maternity leave in June. She intends to take a full year off, including the final three months where no Statutory Maternity Pay is payable. I work full time. Our eldest, who is currently 2 years old and seven months old, spends three days a week at nursery while Mum earns 'milk vouchers' (the same stuff I would call 'beer vouchers' before parenthood set in).

My wife collects Childcare Vouchers as part of her remuneration package. This is via a salary sacrifice. I have read on the HMRC website that Childcare Vouchers are considered a non-cash benefit. As a result, it is my belief that the company she works for must continue to provide these throughout her Maternity Leave. Unless she opts out or leaves employment with her current employer, we think these vouchers are payable even for those final three months where there is no money due to her. We have only stumbled upon this realisation by accident. In the event that my wife didn't return to work, we also think that the company would not be able to claim any kind if monetary value for the vouchers back from us.

Can someone confirm whether or not this is true? I can't speak highly enough of the nursery our eldest has been at and how she has really developed confidence and social skills as a result. We certainly wouldn't be able to afford nursery fees for her but this could mean we could send her for one day a week which would be tremendous.

These are the two documents we have read...
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/sml-salary-sacrifice.pdf
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/thelibrary/employer-qa.pdf
Pages 8 through to 11 of the first document address what we are thinking about. In fact, it carries on into the next chapter.

Page 19 of the second HMRC document spells it out quite bluntly too.

If anyone could confirm (or otherwise) that my understanding is correct I would be very grateful.

Thanks in advance.

sarahb

I'm sure I've heard this before and I think you're right. I also found these which are a few years old but might be of use :

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2009/06/10/51018/childcare-vouchers-and-maternity-leave.html

http://www.ecu.ac.uk/your-questions/do-we-need-to-provide-childcare-vouchers-for-the-full-duration-of-maternity-leave