Childcare Vouchers & Maternity Leave

K1RST1E_2

Hi,

Both my husband and I currently participate in the childcare voucher scheme at work with us getting £243p/m each for our nursery fees.

I took 7 weeks at SMP in 2012 which in turn results in my employer giving me back £180p/m in my pay to subsidise the amount I contribute to the childcare voucher scheme.

In February, I am due our 2nd child but will be finishing at Christmas with using annual leave. My maternity leave will actually start from Monday 19th January. My maternity leave will work out as follows:

19th Jan - 19th Jul = Full Pay
20th Jul - 19th Oct = SMP
20th Oct - 19th Jan = No Pay

What happens during the 26 weeks that I'll either be receiving SMP or no pay in terms of childcare vouchers? I'll still be receiving the £180p/m during that period so will my employer make up the additional £63 each month until I return to work?

Also, my husband will be taking 2 weeks paternity leave (full pay) and then an additional 7 weeks at no pay. Will he have to stop his childcare vouchers for those 7 weeks as he'll have no pay to sacrifice?

Thanks.

silvercar

As I understood it, childcare vouchers are payable whether or not you have pay to sacrifice. So your employer is still obliged to pay them even if you don't have enough pay to sacrifice. I researched this for a friend a few years ago, so check the info is still up to date. This is what i posted in 2012.

If you are already getting them through salary sacrifice (so you already have at least one child), when you go on mat leave for your next child you are still entitled to get them. As your statutory maternity pay counts as a benefit, the employer cant deduct the cost of the vouchers from your statutory maternity pay - so you get the vouchers without having to pay for them.

The guidance on this was only established in 2008 and only truly works as a gain if your company doesn't give you any maternity pay above the statutory minimum. My friend works for a company that only gives the minimum and had assumed that either she would stop getting vouchers or would pay for them out of her SMP. I just happened to read something on MSE that proved otherwise. So my friend gets 9 months of vouchers that would have cost over £200 a month.

silvercar

Found it:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/sml-salary-sacrifice.pdf

See example 5 on page 8. The employer is obliged to carry on paying SMP and provide the vouchers without a salary deduction, because the employer is not allowed to pay the employee less than the statutory SMP. The employee is entitled to the childcare vouchers for the full 52 weeks.

Takeaway_Addict

silvercar wrote: »

Found it:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/sml-salary-sacrifice.pdf

See example 5 on page 8. The employer is obliged to carry on paying SMP and provide the vouchers without a salary deduction, because the employer is not allowed to pay the employee less than the statutory SMP. The employee is entitled to the childcare vouchers for the full 52 weeks.

Indeed, this was one of the main reasons that most employers didn't bother, the savings they made though NI savings were not worth it and thus why the government changed the scheme.

mwa

Hi, I took maternity leave last year and I can confirm that my employer continued to pay the full amount of £243 for me when I was on SMP and no deduction was made :0)

sujac

They have to pay you the full amount of vouchers. Only tax & NI can be deducted from SMP. So you should get full SMP amount & vouchers. If you go into unpaid maternity leave you should still get your vouchers.