Paying for 30 hours free childcare with childcare vouchers

aj9648

Since October I have enrolled DD into the 30 hour free scheme at nursery. I have partly paid for this using my childcare vouchers as the cost of the time she stays at nursery is more than the 30 hours. So I have been paying £200 through my company salary sacrifice scheme

I have been asked to reconfirm which I tried to do today and was asked the question online:

Have you stopped your childcare vouchers?
When you applied you said you, or your partner if you have one, were using childcare vouchers. Have you now stopped your childcare vouchers?

So I clicked no and got this:

You've chosen not to reconfirm your eligibility
If you want to continue to get 30 hours free childcare then select 'back' and then select 'yes' when asked if you would like to reconfirm your eligibility.
You can reconfirm your eligibility for Tax-Free Childcare when you've stopped your childcare vouchers.

I am confused - I thought I could get 30 hours free and still get childcare vouchers?

chanz4

one or the other

aj9648

So how come I have been getting both since October?

is there any info which confirms I can only have either 30 hours or the vouchers?

[Deleted User]

aj9648 wrote: »

So how come I have been getting both since October?

is there any info which confirms I can only have either 30 hours or the vouchers?

Did I read correctly that you were using vouchers to pay when care exceeded 30 hours?

aj9648

Yes so total childa care costs were £624 per month and both partner and I used full £243 and cash to pay for this.

Then when she started getting the 30 hours free - the cost went down to c£200 per month and I used vouchers to pay for the extra. And did not have to pay any cash.

Darksparkle

Looks like you are trying to claim tax free childcare. You can’t claim this at the same time as vouchers.

Icequeen99

Darksparkle wrote: »

Looks like you are trying to claim tax free childcare. You can’t claim this at the same time as vouchers.

It's a joint application system - this is a known problem I believe. You can't claim TFC and vouchers (well you can but only for 1 entitlement period) but you can claim 30 hours and vouchers.

OP - you need to phone the childcare helpline they have a workaround for this

IQ

iam007

chanz4 wrote: »

one or the other

Incorrect, you can get the 30 free hours along with Childcare Vouchers.


This is the detail from the Childcare Service website:


30 hours free childcare
All 3 and 4-year-olds in England already get 15 hours a week, or 570 hours a year of free early education. If their parents are living and working in England, 3 and 4-year-olds may be entitled to 30 hours free childcare. An extra 570 hours of free childcare a year, so 1140 hours in total. 30 hours free childcare will be available from September 2017.


The eligibility criteria are the same as the ones for Tax-Free Childcare, except you can continue to get these types of support at the same time as 30 hours free childcare:

• tax credits
• Universal Credit
• childcare vouchers or salary sacrifice schemes
• childcare grants and bursaries

iam007

Icequeen99 wrote: »

It's a joint application system - this is a known problem I believe. You can't claim TFC and vouchers (well you can but only for 1 entitlement period) but you can claim 30 hours and vouchers.

OP - you need to phone the childcare helpline they have a workaround for this

IQ

This is correct... you can claim both 30 hours and Childcare Vouchers and there is a known issue on the website.

I just called about this and the temporary solution that they gave to me was to go back to the screen that asked if you had cancelled your childcare vouchers and say 'Yes'. This then allows you to proceed to the summary screen.... on that screen there is a section called 'Other childcare support' that lists out all the childcare options that you have which will currently not list anything... you need to edit this and add back in your childcare vouchers and then reconfirm all your employment details etc... a bit long-winded, but it allows you to reconfirm.

If those instructions don't make sense, you can call the Childcare service on 0300 123 4097 and get someone to step you through this process.

Hope that helps!

blueincubus

Thanks all for the posts on this thread, I can't believe how poor this system is, government IT systems are just shocking. I'll be ringing the helpline tomorrow to go through the process.

johnlbh

Hiiiii... did you guys manage to sort this out?!

Im literally doing mine now and having same issue (a long time since you guys did yours too which is worrying!) so searching online to find advice...