dodgy childcare voucher or dodgy parents?

[squinker45]

one of my families has failed to pay, and is blaming it on the voucher company.
All the other months have gone in fine, but the voucher is always £2-£5 less than the invoice, and I then have to hassle them for the difference and they make me feel like I am being petty!

Anyway this time the voucher was going to be about twice what the invoice was for so I said I would refund the rest (don't know why but they say they can't change the amount) and the upshot is that it didn't arrive.

Do you think its the company (edenred) or the parents?

i have found that although edenred are sometimes slightly late by a day or two, the right amount always arrives. Can you not log into your edenred account to see what payments are pending?

I use edenred. Their payments are not always on time, but you can log on and check the account. They should definitely not be overpaying in vouchers and asking for a refund, because it has tax implications.

You can't refund in cash, you must carry the credit over to next month.

Payment arrived today! only 2 weeks late then...

I'd just like to reinforce what lesstalkmoreaction said - you must NOT under any circumstances refund the parents any of the amount of the voucher, or do anything with it except provide them with childcare.

If you did and the voucher company found out, they would close your account and you would not be able to accept vouchers from this or any other family again, and if HMRC found out they may prosecute you for conspiracy to fraud.

Don't do it.

Wow this I did not realise - not too sure how it all works to be honest, is this because of something to do with tax?

Yes - the money has not had tax or NI paid on it (it will when you declare it as profit in your own accounts) but not if you reimburse them with cash which is why you should only ever refund via the voucher company or credit the parents invoice for the following month.

HTH