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Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

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Original poster

Accumulated childcare vouchers but now can't use them... Has this happened to anyone else?

13 replies

CeeCee123 · 30/09/2011 20:24

Hi,
To cut a very long story short, our nanny has been waiting and waiting for Ofsted registration but due to reasons which I am confident she is not to blame for, it appears she cannot get it. I'm happy that she is still the right nanny for us as we couldn't be happier with her, the problem I'm facing is that we've been saving up money in our childcare vouchers and now can't use it. Has anyone withdrawn from a scheme and got their money back? I know we'll be taxed full whack on it, which will be painful, but at least we'll have some of it and we would have been taxed anyway.

OP posts:

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azazello · 30/09/2011 20:59

Is it worth hanging onto the vouchers you already have anyway? you can use them for holiday clubs/ after school clubs etc when your children are school age so might be worth just sort of putting them away?

Can you contact your provider and ask if you can cash them in and what the consequences will be?

minderjinx · 30/09/2011 20:59

I can't imagine why she can't get it. Registration requirements for nannies aren't particularly stringent (unless she has a criminal record or some other sort of black mark against her). Are you sure she can't? Have you offered to pay her registration fee? Have you agreed to OFSTED visiting during her working day if they deem it necessary to check her out? There have been previous posts complaining about how lax OFSTED are about nanny registration, so I would personally be quite concerned if a nanny claimed it was not possible.

magicOC · 30/09/2011 21:10

Minder, my registration took 17wks and they told my boss it was obviously taking so long because she has a criminal record she hasn't declared.

I have never been in any kind of trouble in my life, a few parking tickets is about my limit. o they were talking pure and utter cr*p as they found out once the police got around to sending them details. They are not perfect.

OP find out why it was refused. You should be able to call them up and ask, after all that's what my boss did.

WRT the vouchers, my boss saved them up for maternity leave and was able to cash them up in a lump sum. Of course I was registered so whether that made a difference or not i'm not sure, but, def worth checking.

minderjinx · 30/09/2011 21:51

Hello Magic. I'm sorry your registration was held up and that "they" - presumably OFSTED - leapt to such wild surmises as to why that might be, but you say your registration was delayed, not that it was refused. What I was saying is that the requirements are pretty basic - so it's hard to see why she would be refused. If OFSTED or indeed the police have made an error, surely the nanny would challenge that rather than meekly accept that they refuse to register her. If on the other hand she is not particularly keen on registering anyway - perhaps can't see the point of paying the annual fee or not keen on having the possibility of inspections - maybe she wouldn't push it? As a MB I would want to know why it had been refused and if the nanny claimed the reasons to be false, why she wasn't challenging it.

Sam100 · 30/09/2011 22:01

Our nanny registered with ofsted and it was literally a paper processing exercise. She had to produce valid 1st aid certificate, I think was CRB checked too and sent copies of nvq qualifications.

Maybe your nanny's address checks did not work out? Has she moved about a lot?

I would be very concerned at someone being refused ofsted registration and would want to get to the bottom of why. Maybe she could not afford to do the first aid course?

AnxiousElephant · 30/09/2011 22:04

You need to find out why really because nannys only need to have a childcare qual, peadiatric first aid and insurance to register so I would be concerned if it had been refused. I paid for mine to register without any issues.

Bohica · 30/09/2011 22:11

I too would be concerned as to why your nanny isn't able to be registered. Vouchers can be saved for holiday clubs and holiday cover when your nanny has a holiday.

StillSquiffy · 30/09/2011 23:02

Could be tons of reasons. Chances are her qualification is from overseas and she's found out it's not recognised in UK system. If she cant get it, she cant get it.

OP - why not speak to the people who run the childcare scheme to see IF you can get your money back. It's not straightforward from what I can tell, but they'll be the best ones to advise.

nannynick · 01/10/2011 00:35

Contact the voucher administrator and tell them the situation.

HMRC, Childcare Q&A - this seems to me to be saying that if a child were to die, or a parent made redundant, then the unused vouchers could be 'refunded'.

It also says that if the registration is withdrawn, then the employer should start deducting NICs. It does not clarify what is meant by that.

So tell the voucher company running the scheme about the issue and see what they propose. It may be a case that they can stop issuing more vouchers and let the current ones last for longer - so could be used at some future point. However what if the scheme is abolished at some future point... what happens then?

I think you have a DD who is around a year old and a DS who is around 4, is that right? You don't post that often so message archive doe not give much info about the ages of your children, or indeed how many you have.

Does your DS go to pre-school/nursery? Has he started school reception class? If going to school and it's an independent school, then vouchers may be able to be used to pay for some of the fees. If he goes to a playgroup/pre-school/nursery then vouchers could be used for that if he's going for longer time than pre-school education funding covers.
DD is too young for pre-school at present but in 18 months/2 years time would be able to go - would the vouchers keep that long?

fraktious · 02/10/2011 02:41

If it's a qualification issue she can (and should) do CYPOP5 which meets the requirements.

I would also be suspicious if she flat put couldn't get it and didn't give a reason/wasn't willing to put in the effort to get it.

rosycheeksandasmile · 03/10/2011 13:05

Speaking as someone who has had an ofsted nanny with a criminal record (her dog bit someone!!) I would be concerned about this and would want to know exactly why she could not be registered.

JustAnother · 04/10/2011 21:41

I once accumulated £5000 in vouchers due to a mistake in my HR department. I have kept them for about 6 years now and I am only just about to run out. They are accor ones and they definitely don't expire.

cherub59 · 04/10/2011 21:49

If it is just qualifications she can do a "core skills" online training course in a day and then get registration subject to crb, sufficient experience and insurance

I had one nanny register and it took about 8 months as she had worked abroad so getting her crb was more complicated.

Our current nanny is 8 months into the process and was only slowed up whilst she found out how to do the core skills training. She has 25 years nannying experience so didn't need formal qualification to register. Just a formality now for her but ofsted IS painstakingly slow!

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