Childcare Vouchers and Maternity Leave

hufc2002

Morning all, I have a couple of questions that I hope someone can help with.

My wife and I both currently receive the maximum amount (£243) of childcare vocuhers per month albeit via 2 different providers.

My wife will be going on maternity leave in January and I understand that SMP is worked out based on the average weekly pay you receive during the 8 week period, 15 weeks before your EWC (therefore August's and September's salary in our case).

Is this also the case for Occupational Maternity Pay as my wife is entitled to:

4 weeks @ full pay
2 weeks @ 90% pay
12 weeks @ half pay + SMP
12 weeks @ SMP

My plan is to reduce my wifes voucher deductions to £0 for the months of August and September which I believe in turn will allow her SMP to be based the additional pay that she will receive for those 2 months (£165.24 per month better off). Is this correct?

onlyroz

I'm not sure about your specific question but do you know that your wife's employer must carry on paying the childcare vouchers on her behalf while she is on SMP? The vouchers can only be taken out of any money earned above SMP.

I'm also not sure that you can just change the voucher amount willy-nilly - so I doubt she'd be able to reduce them for a few months and then put them back up again. Some voucher companies only allow you to make a change once a year.

Crabapple

I think you'd need to ask her HR department how they work out the enhanced benefits so whether it would be her net salary after the voucher deductions or not.

I'm guessing from your comment that her salary after voucher deductions would not be enough to get the maximum SMP? If so you need to look at whether you can make changes to the voucher payments as mentioned above.

Bluebell1000

Where I work has a similar system. I stopped my childcare vouchers (online) for April / May because otherwise it'd affect my maternity pay. Then they are re-starting again from July, because I was a bit too late re-starting them for June! So yes it's perfectly possible, and in fact is suggested by our HR department

rpc

What you need to ensure you avoid is having the OMP worked out on post-sacrifice pay and then having the vouchers deducted from it. Effectively, you could end up paying twice.

The SMP for the last 24 weeks will be at the fixed rate, unless salary is quite low so the earnings don't usually effect it.

The 4 weeks at full pay and 12 weeks at 50%+SMP are both above SMP so deductions can be made down to (but not below) the SMP level.

Bear in mind that her terms may not let her adjust her voucher contribution willy nilly. Also worth mentioning that, while it is unlikely to apply here, if you stop vouchers for 52 weeks or more then any grandfather entitlements are lost.

Lu_Lu

When I went on mat leave I stopped my vouchers for 3 months before so I could ensure I received my full enhanced maternity pay. I am with a scheme that lets me change the vouchers monthly though and I also stopped claiming them while I was on maternity leave.

HR should be able to advise her of her best solution.

freebiequennie

rpc wrote: »

What you need to ensure you avoid is having the OMP worked out on post-sacrifice pay and then having the vouchers deducted from it. Effectively, you could end up paying twice

This is what I am concerned about I go on mat leave in Nov n currently claim full amount.

I work for NHS do get occupational mat pay similar to OP but bet the quoted above is what will happen.

I understood you had to cancel them by 15wks of pregnancy for no effect to be made on mat pay as its calculated from wk 15-25 of pregnancy however I could be wrong - it's bit crap in that most HR don't do anything til MATB1 is submitted and this is at 25wks and no earlier than 21wks as midwife can't give it before then.

I may have to enquire with hr myself that's whole can worms as no one ever knows the answer to anything in our hr!!

wendz86

I just had a look on my childcare voucher providers website and it says for anything paid above smp it depends on how the company calculates this so would vary company to company. I was planning to continue to claim them as my HR said when i was on smp the company will pay for my vouchers.

freebiequennie

Yep wendz when on stat maternity pay n no pay they pay them for u but when on more than that it's taken off so will your 90% pay be 90% of earnings before vouchers taken off or after if after they will then deduct vouchers again - this is my concern for my full pay n half pay time.

If u look at your p60 your gross salary will be your agreed salary minus childcare vouchers as they are salary sacrifice.

rpc

freebiequennie wrote: »

I work for NHS do get occupational mat pay similar to OP but bet the quoted above is what will happen.

I think we had someone on here a while back who worked for the NHS and got diddled by this.

It is allowed to work out benefits on your post-sacrifice pay. It is allowed to deduct from OMP above the level of SMP.

It is either cheeky or mean to do both as the employee ends up paying for the vouchers twice.

ema_o

She should speak to her HR dept. I spoke with mine and they work out enhanced maternity pay as if you aren't getting the vouchers (but then I am not going to get vouchers whilst on maternity)