Chancellor's new childcare discount proposal

peachyprice

sweaty_betty wrote: »

I remember what it was like having a new baby and the thought of having to deal with both the baby and entertain a toddler all day every day with no respite is terrifying!

Seriously? Terrifying?

Makes you wonder how the human race survived so long before putting children in nursery because women can't cope with two children at a time became the norm.

Dinah93

The proposals seem to be poorly thought out at best, and downright contradictory at worst. Another kick to the finances of working families. This will have limited impact on households who don't work at all as they can't claim vouchers anyway!

Gigglepig

Peachyprice, women probably had heck of a lot more support from extended families and communities? and the standards were very different ... nowadays it is not acceptable to leave children unattended whilst for example working on a farm, or having young children looking after even younger children.

Mrs_Imp

peachyprice wrote: »

Seriously? Terrifying?

Makes you wonder how the human race survived so long before putting children in nursery because women can't cope with two children at a time became the norm.

Because in those days it was the 'norm' to live with or near family, who would help out.

These days a lot of families live far from other family members, so the support network isn't there.

My eldest still goes to the childminder once a week, which has been a lifesaver, as my youngest has colic and cries most of the time she's awake.

Mupette

as i believe it, it is up to the employer if they want to pay vouchers on mat leave, again their decision whether to offer refunds etc.

i will no more on this later as i work for one of the companies who do the vouchers, we never tell the parent they can have vouchers when on mat leave as it is the employer who decides, its down to their discretion

silvercar

Mupette wrote: »

as i believe it, it is up to the employer if they want to pay vouchers on mat leave, again their decision whether to offer refunds etc.

i will no more on this later as i work for one of the companies who do the vouchers, we never tell the parent they can have vouchers when on mat leave as it is the employer who decides, its down to their discretion

You are wrong. You can't take away any non money benefit when someone is on maternity leave eg you can't remove their company car or private health care. In the same way you can't remove their childcare vouchers. They paid through salary deduction before, but you can't deduct from benefit, so when their pay drops to mat ben levels you have to supply the vouchers and not deduct for them.

I have a few friends in this situation and they were surprised at this rule - in some cases it was also a surprise to their employers!

silvercar

sweaty_betty wrote: »

I remember what it was like having a new baby and the thought of having to deal with both the baby and entertain a toddler all day every day with no respite is terrifying!

When you decided to have number 2, you knew you would still have to look after number 1.

Mupette

right so when a parent rings up and asks if the can have vouchers whilst on mat leave, and we tell them they need to go back to their employers payrol to discuss this, a huge company that issues the vouchers for the employers to give to the parents is wrong!!!

we are there to do what we are asked to do, we don't set the rules, HMRC/government does.

we don;t decide who can have refunds and backdated vouchers, who can have vouchers when on mat leave, we are to advise parents that it is down to their payroll/employer.

I dare you to ring up any of the childcare voucher service companies and ask if you can have vouchers whilst on mat leave. the person you speak to will inform you that it is down to individual employers,

rpc

More detail this morning - it is £1,200 or 20% per child.

It will work as a voucher scheme - you pay in £80 and the govt adds £20. You then pay the provider using the vouchers as present.

Using the costs we have had, a working family with one child might lose out (two lots of vouchers give closer to £2k subsidy) but once you have two children in childcare you come out better off.

The only bit I don't like is that these vouchers can't be used for after school care. It also remains to be seen whether a parent on mat/pat leave counts as working (they do for many other benefits).

My main complaint is that this isn't coming in sooner! We currently claim two lots of vouchers, saving £1866 per year. Under this scheme, we would save £3,600 per year!

I dare you to ring up any of the childcare voucher service companies and ask if you can have vouchers whilst on mat leave. the person you speak to will inform you that it is down to individual employers,

Which is simply wrong. The requirement to pay vouchers during mat leave is set by the government. It is law. The only choice a company has is whether to run a voucher scheme or not.

Mupette

Mupette wrote: »

we are there to do what we are asked to do, we don't set the rules, HMRC/government does.

rpc wrote: »

Which is simply wrong. The requirement to pay vouchers during mat leave is set by the government. It is law. The only choice a company has is whether to run a voucher scheme or not.

it's not as simple as just deciding if the company runs the scheme or not,

The law states that salary sacrifice can not happen if it takes the wage under nmw, not every woman that takes mat leave will have the full amount of salary for all of the mat leave, there are so many factors to think of, who will and who won't benefit that the employer has to decide, HMRC will have the full breakdown, it is advised that a parent should speak with HMRC to know what they can fully claim whilst on mat leave.


Also consider if the mat leave is for child number 2 onwards, if you are getting the childcare element of tax credits, you have decide which you would benefit from, some its tax credits, for others its salary sacrifice