Childcare vouchers - how safe is my money?

ooblyboo_2

I have recently been enrolled into a childcare voucher scheme, administered by Kids Unlimited, by my employer. Currently I am using the vouchers to pay towards my son's preschool care. He will start school in September and although we will be using a childminder who we can pay with vouchers, the likelihood is that some of the money each month will be left over and I will accrue a surplus. It is tempting, given that you don't pay tax on vouchers, to keep saving into the scheme until such time as a (planned) second child comes along and we need to pay for its nursery care. But I have two questions:

1) I am not aware of my money being protected by any sort of scheme similar to FSCS, should Kids Unlimited go bust for any reason. Given that the amount of money I have in the account could conceivably reach into the £1000s within a year or so, this is a bit of a concern. Is it in any way protected?

2) If, for some reason, child number 2 never arrives, can I extract my money (obviously, I realise that to get it back I would presumably have to pay the tax due on the amount, as if it had been normal income)?

DaisyFlower

The voucher scheme I have used in the past was protected but the vouchers only lasted 12 months so i was careful to use them within the time period.

We were not able to cash them in and there was a warning in the literature to ensure you knew that.