Teachers and childcare vouchers??

[Fifilottie]

Call me ignorant but I am a bit bewildered by the childcare voucher scheme. Any simple explanations would be welcome...??? I am at home looking after DD at the moment but am hoping to do a graduate teacher's programme training course full time from Sep. My DP is a teacher. Is it possible that we can claim childcare vouchers...or are these just are salaries turned into vouchers?? I know I sound stupid but I can't seem to find any clear and straight to the point info.? Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

CHeers

I used to look after a teachers children who paid some of her fees by voucher but she stopped doing this as it affected her pension. Its because the voucher money came out of her salary before tax and her pension contribution was calculated after tax so she wasnt paying as much into her pension as she used to so when she weighed it up she decided not to continue with the vouchers. Hope that makes sense.

it won't really affect your pension a great deal - you're only using them for a few year while children are young and you're working a lot of years after that - check with his LEA to see what scheme they use. I work 2day/week and the vouchers are invaluable to us. DH self employed so he's not entitled.

My better half is a teacher, this is how he applied for childcare vouchers:

1. Check with the HR/admin staff at school which scheme they belong to. They should be able to give a name and number to ring. My BF's school was with Busy Bees but it may be different for your partner's school, so ask first.

2. Ring the number and explain what you want. They will ask the amount you need and the name and location of your nursery. You don't need your nursery's bank details, as long as it's officially registered they should be able to look it up in their database.

3)The following month, nursery fees will be paid directly from his wage to the nursery, under the name of your child so they know who it's for.

I also set up chilcare vouchers through my own employer and I get them paid into an account which I can manage online, but in BF's case it was all done by the organisation via phone.

So my advice is: ask at his school and then take it from there. Also check with the nursery of course whether they accept payments like this - I think most registered nurseries take part so it shouldn't be an issue, but you might as well make sure.

We currently save over 100 pound a month in childcare using these vouchers through both our salaries, so it's worth doing.

There is a student finance childcare grant that you can apply for instead of the salary-turned-into-voucher thingys.

I am a teacher, my school is registered with busy bees. The money comes out of my wages into an online busy bees account, then I pay the childminder online from this account. So the money that school pay into my bank account is my wages minus the CM fees. I set it up on the phone in about 5 mins to busy bees, they reckoned it would save me about £50 per month as dont pay tax on the CM money.
Hope this helps!

to be more clear....... "The money for my CM comes out of my wages into an online busy bees account"

CHeers everyone. This is all becoming more clear now. What happens if two people pay the childcare from two salaries. I was actually going to use my training salary to pay childcare(that would only cover childcare) and we would just live of DPs salary. However I am not sure that I can get childcare vouchers as a training teacher..will have to suss that out. I guess it might be better to rearrange this hypothetical situation then..

are you drawing a salary as a trainee teacher? it is taken from a salary - not given as a bursary or grant

You each get an allowance of maximum £243.00 towards Childcare vouchers. If your childcare fees are less than £243.00, you only need to set one salary up for the vouchers. If it's more than that, you can ask for £243.00 each, so for a maximum of £486.00. We have set it up so that I use the max of £243.00 and my partner has another 100-odd pound taken off to pay off the remainder of our costs.

In our case, the nursery gets this paid in two seperate amounts, which they don't mind (in fact it's probably nice for them to know that the payments are guaranteed to be there on the 1st each month).

By the way, if you really want to, you can have more than £243.00 taken out of your wage, but then anything over that amount isn't tax-free.

ramonaquimby - If I am accepted on to the GTP(a sort of working while training teacher training option) I will get a salary but not much.

Ciske that is useful info thank you. I feel a bit more clued up...

Apprarantly I could apply for a student childcare grant even doing a GTP but I think it will consider houshold income( of course) so probably wont get much

You can get childcare vouchers doing GTP. You are employed as an unqualified teacher whilst you train and your salary is taxed... you can definitely get them. Just ask your employer which company they use and to give you details of the scheme - they should have a pamphlet or an email for you.

The salary is an ok salary, it's just on the lower end (of what British state school teachers make, I'm guessing?). DH got £21K while he was working and doing the GTP.

You save the tax and NI on the money that is converted to vouchers. Here is a good link

www.computersharevoucherservices.com/parents/Pages/how-much-can-I-save.aspx

If you take the full amount £243 per month you save £76 a month as a lower rate tax payer and about £1196 as a higher rate tax payer.

Ask the school about it and they will give you the relevant form or website to visit.

Newteacher good website...thank you!!