Trouble with Sodexo childcare vouchers - Sodexo have got £2000 of our money!

Katie_Chattan

I'd really appreciate some help from anyone who's got any ideas of how to handle this situation.

We have been signed up to the Sodexo childcare voucher scheme through my and my husband's work, and have been paying in for around seven years. We had a significant balance (over £2,000) which we hadn't been able to use while we had changed our childcare arrangements, and had set it aside to pay for after school care for the next couple of years. Neither of us had realised or read in the small print that the vouchers can expire, and only found out when we logged in to make this term's payment and discovered that the money had just vanished from our account.

I got in touch straight away, and was advised to send in a letter explaining what had happened, and that we hadn't been aware of the expiration policy - apparently vouchers can be restored. We've just had the response - a flat refusal, with no details or explanation at all, and that's that. Money vanished. No explanation of where it's vanished to, or how they distinguish between the money we contributed and the proportion that comes from tax. Presumably the company have just got the cash themselves.

What next? I can't see any way in which this can be legitimate - I do get that it's a tax scheme not a bank account, but surely it's not acceptable practice just to absorb money like this without providing any notice? And is there any way I can try again to get them to reconsider?

Would be really grateful for any suggestions anyone might have.

allydiamond

The only way to know if your evouchers might be due to expire is to count back your payments into the system until you have reached your balance. It doesn't show you or warn you when your vouchers are due to expire. Their system seems designed to take advantage of the date limit in their terms and conditions.

With print vouchers it is obvious as the date is printed on them but with the evouchers there is no easy way to know when this is.
I also had a £2000 balance but a few months ago cut back my payments to Sodexo. I'm glad I did as I also didn't know the expiry date applied to the evouchers. My oldest vouchers are now from November 2014.

Did they remove the vouchers month by month or all in one go? It should take them about 8 months to remove the vouchers if you were paying the full amount each month.

Very much hoping they will alter their decision as their website design makes it difficult to comply with their terms and conditions.