Childcare Vouchers and Maternity Leave

hufc2002

You should definitely be able to stop your vouchers for 2 months and then start again to benefit from the higher gross pay when not sacrificing part of your salary.

It will all depend on their payroll deadlines too. I know where I work, the deadline is approximately 1 month prior to pay day i.e. if I wanted to amend/stop my vouchers for August, then I would need to notify them by 25th July. I assume my wifes is similar however the payroll person who pays her isn't in until tomorrow to ask the question. I will also ask her for a copy of the policy.

ema_o

If you can't stop then restart your vouchers you may be able to vary the amount. I have reduced mine to £1 for while I am on M/L.

rpc

freebiequennie wrote: »

My vouchers are through kiddicare n if hr haven't answered by tomorrow I may ring them as they should have my employers terms n conditions available n I won't be first to ask surely.

Why would kiddicare know what your employment terms are? This is nothing to do with them.

You should have a copy of the terms, they may well be on your work intranet and HR should certainly give you a copy if asked.

Don't assume that OMP is calculated on the same basis as SMP. In a great many cases that will be wrong.

hufc2002 wrote: »

You should definitely be able to stop your vouchers for 2 months and then start again to benefit from the higher gross pay when not sacrificing part of your salary.

Some employers (quite legitimately) restrict when you can change your vouchers. Others let you do it every month if you wanted to.

hufc2002

According to my wifes 'Maternity Booklet' which she was issued by the council last time round, this is what it states around 'Method of Payment':

Maternity pay will be paid in the same way as your normal salary or wages.

A weeks pay is defined as follows:

If your hours and pay are the same every week then a weeks’ pay is the amount payable under your current Contract of Employment for working your normal hours.

Using the above, I have calculated that if my wife's OMP is calculated on her pay pre-salary sacrifice then she would be £526 better off than if it was based on post-salary sacrifice.

Her take home pay without salary sacrifice is £165 greater than it is with the vouchers and as stated previously, we would only have to cough up £40 cash to cover the shortfall in nursery costs during the 2 month's when she doesn't receive the vouchers.

freebiequennie

Well HR were not alot of help sent me mat pay policy which says salary sacrifice may affect pay and if you want to suspend vouchers contact vouchers provider - have asked for clarification.

Employer changed provider over a yr ago and no didn't get sent any terms n conditions - when log into kiddicare I have a link for "my agreement" nothing about mat pay in there.

Spoke to kiddicare who advised there is no law around childcare vouchers n mat leave they can calculate pre or post salary sacrifice that's their choice n they can also make the decision to suspend them when you are on smp or no pay situation which I didn't think they could.

Anyway to be safe have reduced then for July n Aug to a nominal amount and to return to full amount in September.

If HR come back with some amazing answers I can ring again n have July n Aug reamended

What a palava why can it not be simple I stupidly assumed the wks of full pay would look pretty much as pay does now.

hufc2002

Payroll have said that my wife needs to contact Computershare ro reduce the value of the vouchers for August and September however they cannot be cancelled altogether, a minimum value of £20 per month needs to be paid.

freebiequennie

Yeah after 5emails to HR eventually got an answer calculated post salary sacrifice so glad have reduced vouchers for July n Aug to a small amount. I am wk 18 as of Thursday so will be almost 19wks when July starts and 27wks at end Aug but at least for 6 out of 8 qualifying wks I will have increased pay a bit.

hufc2002

freebiequennie wrote: »

Yeah after 5emails to HR eventually got an answer calculated post salary sacrifice so glad have reduced vouchers for July n Aug to a small amount. I am wk 18 as of Thursday so will be almost 19wks when July starts and 27wks at end Aug but at least for 6 out of 8 qualifying wks I will have increased pay a bit.

What have you reduced them to?

freebiequennie

£25/mth then back to full amount from Sept

hufc2002

I'm very confused!

Wifes payroll confirmed that vouchers cannot be cancelled altogether and that a minimum amount of £20 per month needs to be paid.

I therefore contacted Computershare direct with my query trying to explain that even £20 per month sacrifice would still impact my wifes Occupational Maternity Pay. Their response was 'in line with your request, we can confirm that your vouhcer oder has an expiry date of 28/07/14 (basically meaninng no further vouchers will be ordered after this) and if I want to make any further amendments I can do this by logging into the Computershare account online.

I replied to the email to query if they had been cancelled altogether (as I understood from Payroll that £20 had to be paid minimum) and they have confirmed that the childcare vouchers are due to be 'Suspended' after the July orer and that I 'should' be able to restart voucher deductions from October if I wish.

I am waiting to hear back from Computershare how I restart the vouchers.

Heads battered!