Childcare vouchers!

[weebuns]

Does anyone know much about childcare vouchers for registered childminders?

What did you want to know? Not all childminders will accept them and they will need to register with whichever company the employer uses.

Your clients need to send you the registration info and then you just claim on the voucher every month - it's quite easy and it goes straight into your bank account.

What would you like to know?

I dont accept them anymore due to constant late/confusing payments but know lots about them as I took then for for 5 or 6 years.

Brazenhussy - were the late/confusing payments down to your client or the company? I am newly registered and I have had an enquiry from a family wishing to use edenred - is it pretty straightforward? It looks as though it should be from their website....

Well I was registered with 4 providers and to be fair 1 of them was ok.

They sent me actual cheques which I paid into the bank (that was a bit of an inconvenience because they took time to clear which meant that I didn't have the fees for that week til the following week)
That parent's fees were only £35 a week so that was easy. The problems seem to arise from the parents whos fees were higher than the amount of childcare vouchers available to them. I would end up getting part payment from vouchers and part topped up by cheque or bacs payment from the parent.

Payments arrived from the provider in my account for random amounts of money then i had to ask the parent for the rest which resulted in me being paid late every time.

Often the payment wouldn't arrive in my account when it was supposed to but the parent would assure me it had been taken from their wages. Consequently they weren't prepared to pay me twice so I just had to wait.

Although I am a really good childminder I am rubbish at accounting and this was all too much hassle.

Work is in short supply here and I recently had a family come to see me for whom me not accepting childcare vouchers was a deal breaker. I resolve the issue by reducing their fees by the amount they would have saved paying by childcare vouchers (£1 per hour in my case) and they were more than happy with this.

My employer uses Edenred and I haven't had any problems with them so far - a couple of teething issues the first month, then fine. Touch wood!

I think the best way to use them is to pay your CM in advance, then have him/her refund you when the vouchers are received. That is how it works at our nursery anyway. Feels a bit unfair initally, but actually it is the safest system.

I've found Edenred very good. The parent pays on time and it takes two working days to clear through into my account. I set up my account with them and sent through my Ofsted registration certificate and my account was able to accept payments that day. They send e-mail notifications as soon as a parent pays you.

I've also never had any problems with Kiddivouchers.

It makes me wonder whether all the parents blaming vouchers for late payments are actually telling porkies...

Has anyone used fideliti?

Has anyone used fideliti? I haven't officially got a registered childminder yet so don't have a registration number to provide. But where do I start? Ask my employer? I'm a nurse. Does everyone get them or does it depend on income? I find it all a little baffling. The potential childminder knew nothing of them. If I can't get them I don't think I'll be able to afford registered childcare.

I use Fideliti and I set up our scheme at work and it was simple to do. They are very helpful over the phone.

It has worked well from my end (ie they take the money for the vouchers from my salary) and my nursery hasn't said that there is a problem. I pay from an "online account" that they create and just tell them how much to pay each month and when. Its very easy. I also set this up before I had decided on a nursery.

I am still funding 100% from the vouchers though and I've not got to a stage of having to "top up" the vouchers with real money (as mentioned earlier).

Def worth the effort and I think its pretty easy for the childminder/nursery to set up with them just need to prove they're registered and provide bank details.

HTH

Hello weebuns,

After reading your confusion about childcare vouchers, I hope that you find the following information helpful:

What are childcare vouchers?

Childcare vouchers are a Government scheme designed to help working parents. Childcare vouchers are simply vouchers that you can use to pay for childcare, such as for nurseries, nannies, childminders, after-school care and holiday play-schemes.

How do childcare voucher schemes help to save you money?

The vouchers can be provided by your employer, and are usually received instead of part of your salary through a system known as ?Salary Sacrifice?. Unlike your salary, you don?t have to pay any tax or National Insurance on childcare vouchers, and that?s how you make the savings. Basic-rate taxpayers can order up to £243 a month of childcare vouchers, while higher-rate taxpayers can order up to £124 a month.

Are there any requirements for joining a childcare voucher scheme?

The only requirements for joining the scheme are that you have an eligible child, and that you have enough salary to sacrifice without your remaining salary falling below the minimum wage. However, you can only use childcare vouchers if your employer offers a childcare voucher scheme.

The first step would be to contact your HR department or look in your staff handbook to find out whether your employer already has a childcare voucher scheme in place. If they do offer childcare vouchers, it is likely that they will use an external childcare voucher provider to administer the scheme. HR should be able to provide you with contact details for their chosen provider.
It's normally straightforward to register for childcare vouchers. Depending on your employer and their chosen voucher provider, it's often possible to register online or by phone. If your employer doesn't yet have a childcare voucher scheme in place, they might be willing to set one up for you. Childcare vouchers save money for employers so there's a good business case for setting up a scheme.

How do you pay your carer with the vouchers?

Childcare voucher schemes do vary depending on the childcare voucher provider. You'll normally be asked for details of your chosen carer when you register for the scheme (although you might be able to provide these at a later date). Usually, the voucher provider will contact your carer for you with details of how to register to receive your payments. Carers are required to provide evidence of their registration with Ofsted or an equivalent authority before being able to receive the voucher payments.

Different childcare voucher providers offer parents different payment options. Most providers give parents the option of paying their carer with e-vouchers (online payments) or paper vouchers.

Is there an expiry date on childcare vouchers?

Childcare vouchers can be spent up to 1st September after the child?s 15th birthday (or 1st September after their 16th birthday if they are disabled).

Will childcare vouchers affect your tax credits?

Childcare vouchers can affect the amount of tax credits that you receive. If parents are receiving more than £45 a month in tax credits, it's recommended that they check with HMRC before joining the scheme.

This is just an overview of some of the basics, but I hope it helps.

Helen

We pay part of our childminder's money with them, but I see it as down to me to pay however each Monday. dp and I get paid at different times during the month, and when we have vouchers we transfer them, otherwise I write a cheque. On pay day we each transfer the difference between our vouchers and what we have to pay to another account that I have a chequebook for.

My employer uses Edenred and there are a few days delay between payday and the money being in the voucher account. They then pay by BACS to her bank account.

I would suggest that you will accept vouchers but so long as you get paid by whatever means on the appropriate dates, and that maybe you ask parents to print out the transaction screen showing that the payment's been made if you're not sure.

For parents, it does depend on your income - you need to be a basic rate taxpayer, and as it's a salary sacrifice scheme, your earnings after vouchers need to be a minimum amount. You get £243 maximum a month vouchers which go out before tax and NI are taken off. You might need to check what the deal is if you pay into a pension scheme, eg the NHS one. I paye into the local government scheme and I still have to pay contributions for my whole salary inc vouchers, otherwise my pension would be based on a lower wage.

Your OFSTED registered CM or other provider will have to be willing to fill in a form I think, which will include personal info like bank details and registration details.

I am a childminder accepting childcare vouchers from 4 different companies. Some parents pay my vouchers online, some by paper voucher. Either way works ok for me. You soon get the hang of the system.

I ask to be paid monthly which is less time consuming checking payments etc. Also, once registered with a voucher company you can log-in to see which payments are pending before they actually hit your bank account. It usually takes 3-4days for the payment to reach you.

Out of the 4 voucher companies I'm using, I just have problems with 1. TBH it's more likely to be the particular family than the voucher company!!

I am paid via Edenred by one of my clients. I issue invoices in plenty of time to be paid by 1st of hte month (I ask to be paid in advance) and make it clear to parents that unless I issue invoices late I expect the payment by 1st.

Edenred were very easy to set up, could do it all on line, and are probably the best one to be paid by for speed of getting into my account. As long as parents authorise the payment quickly I'm usually paid 2-3 days later.