Childcare Vouchers & Maternity Pay

LizDee

Hi

I have a question regarding my entitlement to Childcare Vouchers now I am receiving Statutory Maternity Pay. I work for a large multi-national pharmaceutical company & they offer a flexible benefits scheme. After the birth of my child & during maternity leave, I opted to receive childcare vouchers. For the first 18 weeks of maternity leave I received full pay & the value of these vouchers was deducted from my salary. However, from 19 to 39 weeks I am now on statutory maternity pay only & the company policy is to discontinue the vouchers, but if I decide to continue with them I will accrue a debt to be paid on return to work after maternity leave.

From everything I have been reading on the HMRC website & on this forum & other sources on the web, I believe that the employer should continue to fund the vouchers during my period of SMP until the end of week 39,but also during zero pay ie until the end of 52 weeks maternity leave. I have spoken to my HR department and quoted the HMRC website examples, however they argue that while the benefit must continue to be provided throughout maternity leave, it does not need to be funded. They classify it as a "lifestyle choice, voluntary benefit".

I realise that I have taken out the vouchers after my maternity leave commenced, which may put me in a different position to someone who already had these in place at the time of starting maternity leave. However the HR department did not state this to me, and they seem to make no distinction in the policy between those that started childcare vouchers before and after commencement of maternity leave.

SO - am I entitled to receive the childcare vouchers until the end of my maternity leave, funded by the company, & if so, how do I go about challenging this (already had 3 tickets raised & closed with the HR servicedesk!).

Any help/advice greatly appreciated!

sheramber

does this cover it?

http://vouchers.employersforchildcare.org/media/Childcare%20vouchers%20during%20maternity%20leave%20%28parents%29.pdf


Q. If I am expecting my first child, can I opt into the scheme once the baby is
born?
A.
Once the baby is born, you can opt into the Childcare Voucher scheme if you receive
Contractual/Enhanced Maternity Pay over and above SMP. However, once you drop to SMP
only, you will have to opt out of the scheme. You can then opt back in when you have
returned to work and are receiving a salary again. Your employer would not be obliged to
pay the voucher value on your behalf.

LizDee

Thanks for the link, & it answers my question. So it seems there is a distinction in the law around when the vouchers were taken out - before or after ML. This wasn't clear from the HMRC website.

Interestingly my HR department did not explain this to me & in our company policy, as already pointed out in my post, it makes no distinction.

So I presume if I have my second child, & am in receipt of the vouchers when I go off on ML, I should be able to dispute the policy if they try to ask me to fund them when I return?