To think we will lose out with the new child are rebate

[maddening]

We both work full time, childcare evens out over the year at £500 per month so about £6000 a year - going down to about £4500 per year soon with ds free hours kicking in.

So currently we both do childcare vouchers which saves me £70 tax and dfiance £50 tax which is about £1400 per year.

But the most we can claim back under the new system will be £1200 prob nearer £900 when it goes down - so those already with both in work will lose out - aidmmw (am I doing my maths wrong?)

YABU!

Firstly, if you're already in a scheme I believe you can continue with it. You are only forced to change if/when you change employers.

Secondly, I think the amount you can save has increased to £2000.

www.kiddivouchers.com/taxfreechildcarenews.php

Oh wait- just realised with £4500 child care costs you are right, you will only be able to save 20% of that which is £900. (Sorry- didn't get much sleep last night!). Whereas with childcare vouchers because it's salary sacrifice you save NI contributions and anything else that is taken as a percentage of salary.

But you can just continue with the existing scheme so you won't be any worse off.

Yey - at least there's that! I didn't realise that I could carry on with my scheme - phew but I would be worse off under the new scheme if I was a new mum. So personally iabu but new folk coming in will be worse off unless paying top whack childcare .

Anyone claiming max vouchers for 2 parents will be worse off unless they are paying more than around £8400 childcare, yes. But at least people know and can consider their options accordingly.

I would imagine though, there's not that many people who will be worse off under the new regime. I pay £460 a month for DD's nursery- 5 mornings a week. So nowhere near the £8400 threshold. However, as I only work 5 mornings I don't currently pay tax so under the current scheme we can only claim one lot of vouchers, saving £70 a month. Under the new scheme we'd save £92 a month. I would imagine the same is true for most families with 1 FT and 1 PT worker.

Of course, if both parents are FT then they're more likely to be making savings with vouchers on both incomes. They're also more likely to be paying more for childcare- at which point as the new scheme offers higher max savings they could be better off.

I think families are only likely to be worse off under the new scheme if a) they are PT but are on a relatively high wage so pay tax. Or b) they are both FT but have relatively low childcare costs, perhaps due to families stepping in. In either case, they are better off than most other families, so I don't think the ££ difference will have too much effect. Yes, it will be annoying, but in your case it would be £20 a month so hardly breaking the bank!

I think it's a matter of opinion whether £20pcm is breaking the bank! Family budgets are tight and some of us rely on every penny of tax savings we get from childcare vouchers.

My understanding is that the main benefit of the new system is that you can save 20% per child. Rather than a flat total amount of vouchers which is the same regardless of how many children you've got in childcare.

That benefits those with more children. We're also in the position that DS will turn 3 next year and get his free hours at nursery. If we had to join the scheme it would cost us about 5% of out joint family income. I hadn't realised that you could stick with existing schemes