How can I get my childcare vouchers refunded

[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

Have you got/asked for a copy of their actual policy on refunds? Presumably their response will be consistent with that. If it's not, then you may have a case, but otherwise I'm not sure any stranger is going to be able to help you appeal to their good nature any more effectively than I'm sure you've already tried.

The website says:

'How do I obtain a refund?

Under HMRC guidelines, refunds are only allowed if you are unable to use your vouchers as a result of exceptional and unforeseeable circumstances.

Refunds must be processed through PAYE, so tax and National Insurance will be deducted. You must not accept any cash or change from your childcare provider in respect of your Childcare Vouchers.

If you have experienced an exceptional and unforeseen circumstance, provide details to [email protected]. The information you provide will be reviewed and may be shared with your employer.'

I'm pretty sure Covid is exceptional and unforeseeable. I'd be trying again using their own terminology and asking them to explain why they don't think it does fit that description.

Could you try contacting HMRC to see if they consider it 'exceptional and unforeseeable circumstances.' After all HMRC stand to gain too.

I guess you need to consider whether at 15 is he ever likely to return to holiday clubs? I know that they do young drivers holiday for example. If you think he might you could reframe it as savings as it is money you would have spent and will spend in the future. If he is unlikely to then that is a further reason to request it back as whilst you had use for them when he was younger you no longer require them.

Have you spoken to your employer about this? Or just contacted Kiddivouchers directly because they have changed provider?

Being unable to use the vouchers due to COVID is IME treated as an exceptional circumstance, and refunds are given.

That being said any refund should be processed via the payroll for PAYE/NI as per HMRC guidance so the support from your employer would be needed with this.

I support with the admin of a CCV scheme (employer side) and we have recently supported with such refunds under similar circumstances, and we have managed the discussions with providers on individual requests, although our provider hasn't changed so a little bit more straight forward.

Hope you get it sorted!

I arranged a refund for an employee due to them not being able to use CCV due to COVID. It was the employer who had to request it rather than the employee going direct to the CCV provider.

Sorry I don’t understand
You don’t want him “attending summer holidays”
Do you mean holiday camps?

Are there any for 14/15 year olds?!

Thank you so much for your post. Unfortunately Kiddivouchers consider COVID-19 as a temporal delay. I quote their reply :’ Refunds of childcare vouchers are generally only available in circumstances where, for exceptional and unforeseeable reasons, there is no prospect of a parent being able to spend their vouchers on childcare over the coming years. We do not consider your circumstances fit this criteria. In most cases, the coronavirus pandemic is only leading to a temporary delay in parents being able to use their childcare vouchers. While we would agree that the current circumstances are exceptional in terms of the wider impact on society, our threshold for refunds is determined by the impact on childcare vouchers and not by the impact on wider society. As the impact on parents' ability to spend their childcare vouchers is temporary, it does not meet the threshold for refunds.’ I think that I need arguments to convince them that circumstances are exceptional but they won’t take covid as such. Thanks

Probably not allowed, but a friend asked me to spend hers for her and I gave her the money. She paid my nursery directly with the vouchers. That's a lot of money.

Thanks for pointing out my mistake. Yes I mean holidays camp.

Thanks TW2013, I will ask HMRC ‘to see if they consider covid-19 'exceptional and unforeseeable circumstances.’ It will be good to have this in writing from HMRC. I will ask advice to my employer too, but it previously said that because they don’t have a contract with Kiddivouchers anymore I need to deal with them directly.

I'd push back on the basis the childcare vouchers can't be spent because your son is turning 15. But I'm surprised they won't do a refund via your work so NI and tax will be taken off.

Could you get a letter from your GP to advise against DS attending activities etc. You might have to pay £25 for it, but if it gets you a refund.

We had a similar issue with Edenred. My DS was physically abused (bitten and scratched) a number of times by a staff member at nursery. When we found out we took both children out of nursery immediately and didn’t put them back. We had to keep paying for childcare vouchers until the end of the year, so ended up with about £2,000 with Edenred. They wouldn’t refund them as they said they could be used for holiday camps in the future. Kids are now teenagers and have never wanted to attend holiday camps, so the money is still there with no way for us to get it back.

This is a scandal! And disproportionately affecting women.

Consumer organisations / media should look at this.

May not be helpful as ours were with edenred but my husbands employer had to complete a form stating how much we wanted refunded, the funds were then repaid to employer who then paid them to him in his normal wage so that tax and NI could be paid on it. I would speak to your HR department as whilst they use a different company now surely they still have a duty of care to try and assist you with this?

Just commenting on my experience. Hopefully this good for information to others. Kiddivouchers said 3 times they wouldn't refund even after me escallating it and persevering. They wouldn't accept Covid as a reason even though I explained that I took the vouchers and had £2000 balance built up to pay for nursery and childminder that were not used due to Covid. Therefore I didn't need them any more.
They would only reply saying they could be used in future. Since having them I also found that providers in the area didn't really want them and it was almost as if people looked down on you for asking even if they did in fact later accept them. After much effort I got my employer involved and of course they agreed they should be refunded and Covid is a good reason. Once they contacted Kiddivouchers through their channels almost at once they agreed the refund even though my employer had now stopped using them. I think the key is to use your employer. If you have left the employment and they were not willing to help I can see Kiddivouchers may be difficult. I even received a letter from the MD Alison Chalmers after they agreed to refund with my employer saying No. Unbelievable. Please see following letter. My advice is persevere and use your employer. Good luck!

As previously advised, the position on refunds is clear in our terms and conditions. Our childcare vouchers are ordinarily non-refundable and any refunds are at our sole discretion.

Your request for a refund has been escalated and reviewed at the highest level within our company. In accordance with our terms and conditions, your request has been declined.

As our escalation process has already been followed, there is no further route for appeal. We will therefore not be entering into any further correspondence with you on this issue.
Alison Chalmers

We're in a similar position.

We have £1800 in childcare vouchers with Edenred.

My husband started working from home at the start of Covid and so we have not needed childcare. He has since changed employer and now works permanently from home. We've also moved house and now our children can walk home from school and don't need childcare.

None of the clubs that they have been interested in take them.

As my husband has changed employer, does it essentially mean that there's no way to get the money back?

Same here.
I had 3k at Edenred that I couldn't use due to covid. I then got made redundant in June last year and have struggled to find any way to use them since. The employer was very unhelpful with asking for them to be refunded.

I've used £450 on a PGL holiday but he didn't enjoy it and doesn't want to repeat it. None of his sports coaching camps accept them and the 'multi-activity' ones that do are aimed at kids up to 12 really.

I've no way of getting them back.

Got this message from Edenred:

Good afternoon

Thank you for your query

You would need to contact your old employer as per the FAQ:

Whether vouchers in a Childcare Voucher account may be returned to you will depend on the details of your Salary Sacrifice agreement and employment contract with the employer who made the deductions.

Please note that it is often the case that the Salary Sacrifice agreement does not allow for the reversal of Childcare Vouchers back to salary.

Edenred cannot arrange a cash alternative to any surplus Childcare Vouchers under any circumstances – this is because Edenred play no part in salary deductions.

Your employer placed the instruction to create an account and deposit the vouchers on your behalf and the Salary Sacrifice agreement will determine the rules of the scheme. This agreement still applies even if you are no longer with the same employer.

Childcare Vouchers have no expiry date and can be used for registered/approved care until the September following your youngest child's fifteenth birthday, or sixteenth if they have a disability. Types of care available can include breakfast clubs, after school care, holiday clubs, and in some cases, tuition.

Please refer to your Salary Sacrifice agreement in the first instance if you have any further queries. If you do not hold a copy of this, the HR/Payroll team may be able to assist you.

How did people rack up such large balances of vouchers? I don't understand why you'd continue to salary sacrifice more rhan you need or when you've stopped using childcare.

What does the contract say about stopping and restarting vouchers? Did you have the option to suspend and stay in the scheme so you didn't build up such a huge balance? They might argue the onus was on you to do that.

We had this pre covid but only a couple of hundred pounds when there was no way to get a refund (complicated by redundancy and employer no longer available). We sent to the after school instead of leaving with the voucher company and they let my niece use some of them instead but I don't think they are supposed to allow that.

£243 a month, means 3k in a year.

I work for a company that uses Kiddivoucher and we had this a lot after COVID.

Response was as above. A global pandemic is not an exceptional circumstance and it will not be refunded. We tried contacting Kiddivoucher as the employer and was told the same.

Was also told that any balance left on your child's 15th birthday will then be donated to charity (maybe 3 months after their 15th birthday?)

It was escalated above my pay grade at that point so no idea how it was resolved, if at all

We've got a surplus with Edenred, but entirely our oversight (i.e. it wasn't due to covid or exceptional circumstances) and it's 'only' about £300.

The options seem to be to commit voucher laundering (i.e. sell them to a friend to pay for their childcare) or donate them to a childcare provider. The latter is our plan - we used them at our DC's primary school breakfast club, so we plan to donate them to the breakfast club, requesting they ringfence the money to subsidise places/provide breakfasts for the kids who need it most.

Dh couldn't get his refunded. In their words 'unless the dc died'!!!!
As it was we had another dc so just used a childminder to use them up when dc was young. As was 2.5k.