Childcare Vouchers - can you get a refund?

selfemployedLozza

I have been a member of a childcare vouchers scheme since the beginning with my employer IBM UK using the company Edenred. This was all working fine up until 2012 when we moved to a rural town in Scotland. There were no registered childminding facilities in the area that took childcare vouchers - in fact, there were no private nurseries and my youngest child was starting school 6 months after we moved to the area, so we used a local nanny. At the time I contact the voucher company to try and get a refund back through IBM, the raiming balance of £1072.44. IBM refused to refund and Edenred said they couldn't do anything.
I left IBM in Jan 2015 and despite trying several times, I could not get the balance refunded.

I am now self-employed, and still, no after-school clubs and childminders in the area take childcare vouchers. My children are now 16,14 and 11 and have no need for after-school care but I have over £1000 stuck in a system.

Does anyone know of any way that this money could be transferred to a child ISA or get refunded through my current self-employed business? I don't mind paying tax on it and IBM is not going to help in any way.

Thanks

Kynthia

I don't think so. I think you can only get a refund for exceptional cases and with your employer's agreement.

I found an article that have a few ideas for using up vouchers. Have you looked to see if any holiday clubs take vouchers that your children would like to attend? Perhaps sports classes, swimming lessons, or would a maths tutor or musical instrument teacher register so that you could pay them in vouchers?
http://www.tax-free-childcare.info/2016/07/childcare-vouchers-this-summer/
https://www.genietutors.co.uk/ofsted-childcare-vouchers-for-tuition/

selfemployedLozza

Thank you for the reply and the links. Some great ideas if we still lived in England. Unfortunately, I am in rural Scotland and things are governed by the Scottish Care Commision - which doesn't make it easy for people to become registered and the vouchers can only be spent with a registered Care Commision establishment. Even both our local leisure centres haven't bothered to register because of the rules and regulations.
I like the Tutor idea, but again unlikely anyone would go to the bother as a PVG would probably be sufficient.
If anyone based in Scotland has any thoughts about were I can use them in the Stirlingshire area, I would be very grateful.
Thanks again Kynthia for taking the time to respond.