Child care vouchers

[snowboarder]

Hi - sorry for probably exposing self as stupid - can anyone point me in the direction of information on childcare vouchers. Or give me a rough idiots guide? I don't work atm but husband does - and it's time for little sb to experience the real work of pre school once he's 2 next April - and I think childcare vouchers are a Good Thing yes? And we could start collecting now in advance? And if we do it before april that would be good too?

Thanks....

[bumpy]

Definitely a good thing and yes sign up before April if you can, here's who I use, the website gives you a lot of info but they're also helpful if you wanted to call them - http://www.computersharevoucherservices.com/Pages/default.aspx

[nunheadmum]

I was advised that if you get tax credits, you may be better off not to use Childcare vouchers. I can't remember the reasoning now - but others may be able to give more detailed advice.

Also it's worth being careful if you are planning another bubs - if you get vouchers, your maternity pay is based on the amount actually paid not the amount plus the sacrificed amount for vouchers, so you could end up getting less maternity pay. (Unless you work for a generous company which gives more than statutory and includes vouchers in it's calculations.)

[Polly D]

Mr sb's work should be able to inform on this since companies do vary. A small task for him while you get on with assembling the new buggy! X

[nikki73]

my provider is called kiddivouchers and they have a freephone number you can find by doing a google if that's of any help. changes are being introduced for higher rae tax payers in April. to do with the amount you can claim i think. if you get on a scheme now they cant vary the terms.

[snowboarder]

Polly D Wrote:

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> Mr sb's work should be able to inform on this

> since companies do vary. A small task for him

> while you get on with assembling the new buggy! X

You would hope, right? But considering its taken 6m to get him to find out about paternity leave pay (he insisted it was statutory only. I said in that case we cant afford for him to take any. Turns out is full pay) I thought would do some initial digging. Only prob is I am a financial idiot. What hope is there for us?!?

Thanks for other useful links. Can now pile on the pressure to at least do SOMETHING before new tax yr.

[new mother]

In extremis, you could maybe try the Inland Revenue who have actualy been v helpful to me recently on various queries....

[Dodo1]

Phone BusyBees. they will talk you and even your husbands company on how to set this up.

[alieh]

The first thing is for your husband to check whether his employer is already signed up to the scheme. If they aren't, it should be fairly easy to convince them to do so and the sites listed above will have good rationale for them. My husband works for a very small company and they were happy to sign up to the scheme once he told them about it.

[Jamma]

Sounds like first thing to do is sort your husband out!

Childcare vouchers are good. Really worth it for most people. And if you do work for a generous company you basically get them for free whilst on maternity leave if you went off to have another one.

We're with kiddivouchers (or at least my firm is) and they are really helpful and good and setting stuff up, changing things, explaining the whole schamozzle.

[damzel]

If you are self-employed and setup your own scheme, I would recommend steering clear of BusyBees and use Kiddivouchers instead as they are considerably cheaper! (You have to pay admin fees if your an "employer" but it's still worthwhile signing up).

[KiddiVouchers]

Hello Snowboarder,

After reading your confusion about childcare vouchers, we hope that you will find the following information helpful. You?ll be pleased to hear that childcare voucher schemes are actually very simple, once you know the basics.

The basics:

What are childcare vouchers?

Childcare vouchers are a Government scheme designed to help working parents afford high quality childcare.

Childcare vouchers are simply vouchers that you can use to pay for childcare, such as for nurseries, nannies or childminders. They can even be used to pay for after-school care and holiday play-schemes.

How do childcare voucher schemes help to save you money?

The vouchers can be provided by your employer, and are usually received instead of part of your salary through a system known as ?Salary Sacrifice?. Unlike your salary, you don?t have to pay any tax or National Insurance on childcare vouchers. The saving in tax and National Insurance is worth around ?1,000 a year per parent; however, your savings will depend on the amount of tax and National Insurance that you normally pay.

At the moment, you can receive childcare vouchers of up to ?55 a week (or ?243 a month) from your employer, however, after April 2011 higher-rate taxpayers will only be eligible to receive tax and National Insurance relief on up to ?28 a week (?124 a month) of childcare vouchers. This means, if you are a higher-rate taxpayer and you are interested in signing up to receive childcare vouchers, you need to join the scheme before April 2011 to ensure that you don?t miss out on higher savings.

Are there any requirements for joining the scheme?

You can only use childcare vouchers if your employer is willing to sign up for the scheme. This, however, is not usually a problem as childcare voucher schemes benefit employers too. By providing a childcare voucher scheme, your employer can save up to 12.8% of National Insurance Contributions, or ?373 per employee per year.

The only requirements for joining the scheme are that you have an eligible child, and that you have enough salary to sacrifice without your remaining salary falling below the minimum wage.

Can you start collecting childcare vouchers before you need them?

As long as you have an eligible child, you can start receiving childcare vouchers and save them in your account for a time when you need them. They can be spent up to 1st September after the child?s 15th birthday (or 1st September after their 16th birthday if they are disabled).

Will childcare vouchers affect your tax credits?

Childcare vouchers can affect the amount of tax credits that you receive. If you are receiving more than ?45 a month in tax credits, we recommend that you check with HMRC before joining the scheme.

How can you get started with childcare vouchers? You can usually sign up for childcare voucher schemes online, by phone, or by post. Registration for the scheme is very simple; it only takes 10 minutes and there?s no means-testing or claim forms.

More information is available at www.kiddivouchers.com.

[randomv]

Snowboarder

If your hubby is a 40% or higher rate tax payer you really need to get registered ASAP as the potential savings will be reduced after April (not for those higher rate tax payers who register beforehand though).

I've just signed up for mini-random. His nursery costs will be ?178/month and we are saving ?73 by using the voucher scheme - brill!! And sympathies on the disorganised hubby..I badgered and badgered mine until he eventually forwarded me the email with registration info and I did it myself.

[Fuschia]

Dodo1 Wrote:

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> Phone BusyBees. they will talk you and even your

> husbands company on how to set this up.

Avoid busybees like the plague, they are a bunch of incompetents! I had to change the provider we use at work, they were so rubbish (and rude with it!)

[Fuschia]

Your husband's work (HR dept) probably are signed up to a scheme already, get the name of it and you can do the rest direct with the scheme. If his company are not yet signed up, I would recommend ACCOR or SODEXHO, but the company would need to agree to sign up.

[damzel]

Fuschia Wrote:

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> Dodo1 Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Phone BusyBees. they will talk you and even

> your

> > husbands company on how to set this up.

>

> Avoid busybees like the plague, they are a bunch

> of incompetents! I had to change the provider we

> use at work, they were so rubbish (and rude with

> it!)

I agree - I had a terrible time with Busybees after they were taken over by another company just over a year ago. They couldn't even get the payments right.

[snowboarder]

Thanks everyone - we have made progress in that husband now forced into investigating etc...He works for a fair;ly large company so turns out scheme all set up, part of pick your own benefits package etc. All good except you get to choose your benefits once a year....in October!! Pah. There is hope - apparently you can also review said benefits if you have a 'life changing event' (!) and with baby snowboarder 2.0 due soonish we may still get in before tax rules change. Bureaucracy, bureaucracy....

[Fuschia]

SB: a new child is def such an event