Husband pays childcare vouchers whilst I'm on maternity.

Karen044321

Hi
My husband and I both work for the same company.
As I'm already part time my husband pays Into the childcare voucher scheme as its a better tax break as he is the higher earner.
We've just found out that had I been the one paying into the scheme then whilst on maternity our company would have paid our vouchers for us up too 52 weeks.
There is no where on our company website that provides any information about this and I have rang our HR department who confirmed this and said it was a 'new' thing which I have since found to be untrue!
My questions are..
1. As we work for the same company are we not entitled to this benefit even though it comes out my husbands wage?
2. Do we have a case against our company as had we known about this I would have had the vouchers come out of my wages since we have now missed out on £2000.

I hope this post makes sense I can't seem to find an answer anywhere.

[Deleted User]

I think what you are referring to is a bit of a loophole in the child care voucher scheme that sometimes catches employers out! Basically as you know childcare vouchers are paid for by you sacrificing a chunk of your salary before tax in exchange for vouchers. Now if an employer has an employee who takes 52 weeks leave and only receives her 39 weeks SMP, there is no salary due to that employee that the employer can deduct the voucher value from BUT because a woman on mat leave gets to keep all her benefits as if she was still at work then in effect the employer loses out and has to suffer the voucher cost. Your employer is highly unlikely to retrospectively change your current set up and is under no obligation too. I doubt you could sue as they haven't done anything wrong?