Childcare Vouchers Payment Error!

mtoreilly

Hi, new to the forum with a question I need some help with - any advice welcomed!

My wife and I claim childcare vouchers through salary sacrifice. We're both teachers and my wife was previously paid by the Local Authority (Warwickshire) until August 2013 when she moved to another school.

It turns out that payroll somehow paid the Voucher Company £243 in September 2013 - which was after my wife left their employment. This money was paid directly to the voucher company - it's not something we ever had - and my wife wasn't paid a salary by them that month (as you would expect!)

A couple of weeks ago we got a letter from them demanding my wife to return the £243 to them that they "overpaid" her.

My question is this - can they do this? As I already mentioned, the money didn't go to us, it was sent to the company (Computer Share Voucher Services) who provide the salary sacrifice scheme for Warwickshire County Council and transfer the payments directly to the childcare provider. The money was never in our possession and the fault is clearly with Warwickshire.

Shouldn't they be chasing the company who they paid the vouchers to, not us?

Thanks in anticipation!

Icequeen99

Did the voucher company use the money to pay your childcare provider or are you saying it was paid to the company but was never in your childcare account?

IQ

LittleMissGiggles123

If they paid the money directly to the provider, then I would think they need to claim it back from them. However, it could be more complicated because your account with your childcare provider could now be in credit for this amount. I think you need to check this with your childcare provider because it could be that although you might have to pay back her previous employer, you will have a period of time where you don't owe your childcare provider anything, until this £243 is used up.

mtoreilly

Thanks for the replies!

The money was paid from the voucher company to the child care provider as it was set up to automatically make the same payment on a monthly basis. So when money arrived from Warwickshire County Council, it was just paid to the childcare provider as per the instruction.

Our balance is level with the nursery, as there was a month when voucher payments didn't go through from the new employer when my wife changed jobs (due to a delay with setting the account up). Unfortunately, we didn't even realise this until recent investigation (subsequent to WCC asking for money back) as the nursery don't always provide an invoice each month, or at least it doesn't always get passed on to us. This extra payment countered the "missing" month from my wife's employer, so the nursery never queried us being short on the account, as we weren't.

I just don't understand how we can be liable to repay this - the money never came to us! They might as well be asking anyone on their payroll to repay it...

dr0psofjupiter

mtoreilly wrote: »

Thanks for the replies!

The money was paid from the voucher company to the child care provider as it was set up to automatically make the same payment on a monthly basis. So when money arrived from Warwickshire County Council, it was just paid to the childcare provider as per the instruction.

Our balance is level with the nursery, as there was a month when voucher payments didn't go through from the new employer when my wife changed jobs (due to a delay with setting the account up). Unfortunately, we didn't even realise this until recent investigation (subsequent to WCC asking for money back) as the nursery don't always provide an invoice each month, or at least it doesn't always get passed on to us. This extra payment countered the "missing" month from my wife's employer, so the nursery never queried us being short on the account, as we weren't.

I just don't understand how we can be liable to repay this - the money never came to us! They might as well be asking anyone on their payroll to repay it...

I would imagine as your childcare was actually paid by the £243 from the council then yes you do owe them it. You should then seek to recover that amount from your wife's new employer, whom you state didn't pay for one month childcare like they should have.

FBaby

Why do you think it need to be paid directly to you for you to have benefited from money that you were due? It doesn't matter whether it was paid to you or not, in the end, they paid money for your benefit that you were not entitled to, regardless the method of payment.

Icequeen99

mtoreilly wrote: »

I just don't understand how we can be liable to repay this - the money never came to us! They might as well be asking anyone on their payroll to repay it...

Not quite sure how you come to this conclusion. No-one else on the payroll benefited from the money - only you did. The £243 paid your childcare bill. So if they had not done it, you would have had an extra £243 to pay.

IQ

mtoreilly

I take what's being said, however we only benefitted by accident. If the voucher payment had been set up in time then the only person who benefitted would have been the nursery who would have had an extra £243. It is only by chance they don't.

If the payment hadn't been made automatically by the voucher company and we had paid the missing sum (which we didn't even know about) should we still be liable for it's return?

Mrs_Soup

Don't see the problem. The nursery got the money so you got the benefit from it so just pay it. You would otherwie have had to pay that £243 direct to the nursery wouldn't you to cover the deficit?

NYM

mtoreilly wrote: »

I take what's being said, however we only benefitted by accident. If the voucher payment had been set up in time then the only person who benefitted would have been the nursery who would have had an extra £243. It is only by chance they don't.

If the payment hadn't been made automatically by the voucher company and we had paid the missing sum (which we didn't even know about) should we still be liable for it's return?

As the voucher payment wasn't set up on time with your wife's new employer, you in effect have missed a payment. You would still have owed the childcare provider for that month.

It just so happens that because your wife's previous employer made the payment in error on your behalf, they can recall it as your wife was not entitled to it for that month as she was no longer working for them.

The fact that the voucher was credited to your childcare account by your wife's previous employer just meant the nursery didn't need to contact you directly for payment.

To simplify it, instead of being chased by the nursery for the missed payment , your wife's previous employer is doing the chasing. You still owe it.

FBaby

It sounds like you thought you got away with one month's payment and as it's been caught, you are now trying to find justification why because it is not your fault, you should be entitled to it.

However you put it, the company paid when they didn't need to and therefore are entitled to get the money back.