What to do with Childcare vouchers when on maternity leave

[mercator]

I do hope someone can advise me. I will be goin gon maternity leave in August and I currently pay 243.00 per month into child care vouchers to help with nanny costs.

Can I either hold payments for the duration I am off, and would this then mean I would bounce down to the minimum new rate of 123? per month as if I had cancelled and reregistered or do most people continue to pay this when on mat leave.

Any advice would be welcomed.

So are you making your nanny redundant and you won't be using any form of childcare at all for the next however many months you will be on maternity leave (how many months do you plan to take)?

What age is your child/are your children - perhaps vouchers could be used for something else, like pre-school?

Are you getting electronic vouchers or paper? The paper ones I think have an expiry date, whereas the electronic ones do not expire. Check with your voucher provider to confirm if you have to use vouchers within a set time period. You may be able to simply stockpile them, for when you need to start using them again.

My boss continued to pay on all of her maternity leaves so she has a stockpile. If you're planning on going back to work after you've had your baby then you're looking at another 3/4 years of full-time childcare so they will get used up.

I don't know about stopping them but it's probably better to stockpile as others have said. You are actually saving in the longterm.

My HR director told me that when on maternity leave, the company has to keep providing you with childcare vouchers but is not allowed to deduct them from your maternity pay ie you get them for free. Our company is very tight so if this is the case, I am pretty sure it must be a legal requirement. Check with your HR department.

You need to understand that you do NOT pay £243 per month into childcare vouchers, you have agreed to reduce your salary by £243 per month and your employer has agreed to provide you with the same amount of childcare vouchers.

The implication of this is that what ceeveebee said is almost correct - they cannot deduct the childcare vouchers from Statutory Maternity Pay. However if you get enhanced maternity pay, this can be reduced (to at least SMP) to offset the vouchers.

If you are, or are likely to be in the future, a higher rate taxpayer you will want to stay in the system paying whatever your provider's minimum amount is whatever happens.

I kept them going through maternity leave.
it reduces the amount you get for the 6 weeks of 90% pay (assuming you don't get enhanced OMP) slightly, but then you get SMP and £243 of vouchers every month.
I've kept my oldest in nursery 2 mornings a week with the vouchers, and now we have several months of nursery feeds (full time for 2) waiting to be spent when I return (DH has kept his vouchers also).
If you can afford it, and are planning on going back, I'd keep them.

Thank you all for your responses. I am planning on taking the full year off as I did not do this with my daughter aged 3.5 and always regretted it and we will be releasing our nanny as we cannot afford to keep a nanny whilst I stay at home and I particualrly want to spend the last year with my little girl before she starts school.

But I really do appreciate the advice from everyone as this has been extremely helpful.