Childcare vouchers

[ChipsCheeseAndBeans]

Not an aibu but posting for traffic.

I currently have £4000 of childcare vouchers saved up. I use them for after school and holiday clubs. Claimed more than I needed for over a year as I was planning to change jobs and knew I could not rejoin the scheme if I did. Planning to stay where I am now but have reduced the amount of vouchers I claim.

Now I have approx a years worth of vouchers and unsure if I will be sending my child to after school or holiday clubs or even if they will be operational in this current climate.

I know I cannot claim a refund, but could I use these vouchers to pay for childcare for my niece or nephew? Or do I hold on to them in case I do use them again.

[Kolo]

Pretty sure you can get them refunded, but you'll have to pay the tax on them.

[trilbydoll]

How old are your kids? Anywhere Ofsted registered will accept them so as well as after school, holiday clubs also places like Gymnastic clubs, Stagecoach etc. If your dc are young I'd hold onto them, I'm sure you'll find a use for them.

[ChipsCheeseAndBeans]

D.C. is 7.

[HotWatBot]

I'm in a similar position - apparently refunds can be organised between employers and childcare voucher providers, so I'm going to try to find out about this.

[AllTheUserNamesAreTaken]

Don’t they have an expiry date on them? I’m not sure but might be worth checking as you don’t want to lose them
I thought you can only use them for your own children/those of your own household

[teaandajammydodger]

You can only use them for your own children. You can get a refund back through your employer.

[IgnoranceIsStrength]

No where near as much but equally have built up a far amount as youngest not been at nursery for a long time and oldest not been using wraparound care. I cant see me being able to use them for quite a while as well.

[jgjgjgjgjg]

You can get a refund. Why haven't you investigated the possibility?

[WrongKindOfFace]

You can’t always get a refund. It’s certainly worth asking though.

[ChipsCheeseAndBeans]

I am looking at our company policy and it says no refund for unused vouchers.

[WoollyMammouth]

At some point you’ll use them so I would just keep them. We’ve reduced ours and will just use them when we start paying for childcare again.

[HotWatBot]

But there must be a lot of people who are unlikely to use them - so parents of Year 6 children whose summer childcare had fallen through.

[CountFosco]

You can use them any time up to their 18th birthday. We're almost at the end of using them regularly (youngest is 7, and don't think we'll return to childcare after lockdown, we'll just WFH on the one day a week we currently need childcare) but a local holiday club takes them.

[Looneytune253]

Can you not pay your chosen childcare provider for the future

[ChipsCheeseAndBeans]

It likely that DH and I will be working from home going forward, so unlikely to use the vouchers again. We have proven to employers that we can make it work looking after our child and still getting work done during lockdown, so will not need out of school / holiday club care going forward.

[Africa2go]

Ask your voucher provider & employer. We get our vouchers through H's employer. We've contacted the voucher provider, can get a refund but obviously have to pay tax on money that will come back from employer.

[exerciseinmypyjamas]

PGL accept them if that's your child's cup of tea.

[NumbsMet]

I'm surprised that both of your employers have granted you the option to work from home permanently instead of returning after lockdown. That's not a criticism though, if anything I'm very happy to hear that there are still some flexible and understanding employers out there . Have they extended this offer to everybody else working at the company?

Regardless, unless you already are certain 100%, I would definitely agree with PP that you should make triple sure they don't have an expiry date. I'm sorry I don't have any clue if you can use them for anyone else than your own children.

[Africa2go]

@Numbsmet I think alot of employers will be more accepting of WFH after this, in particular where they pay rent for office space. Lots of friends / family, including my H have been told WFH will be continuing beyond lockdown, in some form or other.

[NumbsMet]

@Africa2go wow really? As in for the rest of the duration of their employment they can work from home? I'm finding that so interesting, I wonder if that's where a lot of companies are heading in the future?

[GhoulWithADragonTattoo]

DH and I have a similar issue. I’m definitely going to book PGL with some of them. At the moment you can book a week in summer hols for free and then it will be confirmed 3 weeks before and you pay with vouchers then. Look at special offer section.

[Angelnix]

We had a bank of childcare vouchers which we are not going to use, my husbands employer is refunding them as extenuating circumstances. We would've used them for summer holiday clubs, but very few are running and as he will be working from home for the forseeable future, she's not a priority. She's also now 11 and we are unlikely use them in the future, so a full refund is being processed

[KiKimum]

KIDDIVOUCHERS refuses to refund 1600 pounds of vouchers which I could not use and won’t use as I am working from home since March (and holiday clubs are closed anyway). I have to deal with them directly because my employer is now using another provider. KIDDIVOUCHERS said that I need to loose my job or get ill in order to qualify for a refund. My son will be 15 in August. He has asthma and I don’t want him to attend summer holidays for a while before the COVID-19 pandemic is controlled Where can I get help to convince KIDDIVOUCHERS to refund me. Thanks

[alilstressed]

I've reduced the amount I buy to £1 a month so I can still stay in the scheme. Luckily, we had a few holiday clubs open during the summer and at half term so used then. One club has also been in contact to say they will be open 21-23 December, so DC may go there for a couple of days. Whilst I continue to WFH, the holidays become tough to be effective with DC at home.

[GrasswillbeGreener]

Not sure @KiKimum. Our youngest was 15 in July and my husband managed to get a smaller amount of vouchers refunded. He'd reduced to the minimum for a while just to stay in the system as we knew there was less we'd use them for. Some of our eldest's extended time school provision was able to be claimed but not our youngest's. Had things been normal this year we had hoped to put them towards summer activities with the county music service, and I think it was on the basis that we hadn't been able to use them through no fault of our own that they agreed to a refund. Maybe keep an eye on things and try again in a few months' time when we can predict better what next summer will be like.

To the OP - with a 7 yr old and no need to use holiday camps for childcare I can understand you thinking oh I'll not use these vouchers. However, if you can hang on for a few years there will be activities after school or in holidays that you will want to sign your child up for whether it be tennis camps or adventure holidays or music groups. Not all such things can be done with vouchers but never assume they can't without checking.