paying a nanny with childcare vouchers

[elliott]

I've looked through the archives but still have a few questions about how to go about paying my new nanny with vouchers.
I need an idiots guide to what the processes are to go through!

1. I guess she needs to get 'registered' - who with, how, how much etc? How long will it take?
2. I can deal with setting up the scheme for me (and dh) to get the vouchers - did it with nursery. BUT I am confused about the following: how does she get paid? how easy is it to cope with varying monthly payments? Does the voucher cover her net pay or her gross pay? If the latter, how does her tax/ni reach inland revenue?
3. Can I require her to be paid through the voucher scheme? (obviously I will pay any expenses incurred).

Thanks!

Unless it's changed very recently..

1. Registration is via SureStart - I'll see if I can find the webpage in a minute. It costs about £100. FIrstly nanny needs to fill in an application and send it off, when it's received he/she has to make an appointment to be 'interviewed' (in reality this is just to check the first aid cert and childcare qualification cert and to take the £100) then you wait and wait and wait for the CRB check - will be anything from 4 weeks to several months, dependant to some extent on number of addresses nanny has lived at and if UK resident, and also on luck.
2. Do you get paper vouchers? Does she earn less than £486 per month on her lowest paid months? - with our former nanny we paid 243 of her NET pay using the vouchers (would hand them over at the start of the month so they would def. be in her account by the end of it, and take 243 off the direct debit for her pay into her bank account. The tax/NI bill is paid direct to the inland revenue and cannot be paid by vouchers.
3. I have heard of people putting it in the contract that the nanny must 'comply with whatever is required to get registered' but not that they MUST accept voucher payment. Our nanny was more than happy to accept voucher payment as it was in her interests that we had more 'income' so we could pay her more.

Website is
www.childcareapprovalscheme.co.uk

OK, thanks. We will only be paying her about £500 gross per month (and all on BR tax as we are her second job) so will be missing out considerably if we can only pay her net pay rather than our actual costs in vouchers (which is irritating and somewhat inconsistent, given that nursery staff also pay tax, but hey ho).
how recent does the CRB check need to be? I believe our nanny already has one from last year.
not sure whether I will get paper vouchers or electronic - DH's current scheme (Accor) does electronic which presumably is easier and quicker. Its a while since I had them from my work (who use busybees) so will need to check it out.
Have to say I am not intending to pay her any more whether or not I can use the vouchers, so not sure how I can incentivise her to accept them! Does the nanny have to register with the voucher scheme - how does she actually get the money?

Yes she has to register with the voucher providers - we have used paper ACCOR vouchers and Busybees ones - both of these companies have websites which you can download the 'carer's application form' from. Nanny has to fill it out with name, contact details, bank info and registration number - and ours also had to send off a copy of her registration letter to confirm it.
Once registered with ACCOR she sends off the paper vouchers along with a form each month (my nanny found this v. hard as she does not do paperwork) and they get credited to her bank account when they arrive.
Busybees use a different system and once nanny is registered they need to ring a phoneline and give the voucher number, then the voucher amount is credited to her account.

Is your net childcare bill likely to rise in the near future? You can save up the vouchers and use them later (we ended up saving months and months worth while we waited for the approval to happen and then paid nanny entirely in vouchers for a few months).

I'm guessing it's illegal to over-pay the nanny using the vouchers and ask her for a refund.

As to incentivising her - we pointed out to our nanny that she would be more 'employable' in the future if she was registered (and remained so), we didn't link a pay rise to the registered status..but she was always trying to save us money here and there (play group fees etc) (and then borrowing money from us the next day for car repairs or holiday money or whatever - can you see one of the reasons she's a former nanny not current!)
We paid for all expenses - first aid cert, day off paid to go to interview, double time pay for day of first aid course because it was on a Saturday, travel expenses and the fee itself.

The approval process can take several months, so allow for some delay (at least 2 months I would say). The scheme does change in April this year (2007), when Ofsted start taking it over. However, if your nanny becomes approved under the SureStart scheme over the next few months, they will remain on the SureStart scheme, and transfer to the Ofsted scheme when their approval is renewed. I think that SureStart Childcare Approval Scheme is not accepting new applications from September 2007. Ofsted should accept applications from April 2007 - though no paperwork details on that yet.

With regard to Nanny PAYE, you do all the usual HMRC paperwork as per usual. Once you get to the point of producing the payslip, you will have the NET PAY DUE figure which you pay to your nanny. From that NET PAY DUE figure, you then deduct the voucher payment amount, so the nanny gets their NET PAY DUE in two chunks... the voucher, and the remainder via your usual pay method (BACS/cheque/cash).

As employer you therefore do not save anything off your employers NI payment and the nanny has to pay Tax and NI on their gross income as per usual (employer deducts Tax and NI on employees behalf).

My employer uses a voucher company called FairCare, which pays me electronically and works really well. I would suggest opting for electronic vouchers where possible, makes it easier for most people I would have thought.

Thanks for the responses. Nannynick, the voucher company is not something I can alter as it will be busybees for me and whoever my dh's new employer use...Don't know if busybees do electronic transfer but agree it would be better if they do!

So, what does the nanny need to register? she has a BTEC in nursery nursing and various first aid courses - most recently in 2005. Will she need to do anything else?

I am kind of wondering if it is going to be worth it - last nanny lasted six months so hardly worth the time it will take to get registered. I wonder if it is worth asking her other employer if they are interested in helping with the registration process? Am sure the dh will be able to get vouchers but not the mother.

nannynick, I guess you won't know, but do you think it would be worth registering with Ofsted rather than SureStart? She starts work for me on 1 March.

First aid may need to be updated, depending on what the last course covered. If it was a 12-hour course it should be fine, but shorter courses may not have covered the minimum requirements of SureStart CAS.

Would suggest going with current scheme, as will take Ofsted a while to get things sorted out.

The surestart website I posted earlier has a list of acceptable courses (childcare and I think, first aid) it's been a while since i last looked. First aid cert has to be less than 3 years old so 2005 would be ok if the course is acceptable. Otherwise, I recommend looking at Tinies childcare website for first aid courses (they mark which ones are surestart acceptable)..they were much the cheapest I could find.

Why did last nanny last such a short time? If it was because nanny left, rather than you not needing one then you might consider putting a clause in the contract saying that you will pay all expenses but if they move on before 1 year that you will claim a proportion of it back??? (Feels a bit mean and not sure how legal but it's a thought)

The reason the last nanny left was because she got a neck injury which meant she felt unable to do the job. Also I think my job wasn't quite what she wanted - she really wanted to childmind in her own home but couldn't find any mindees. But, it did teach me not to plan too much for the long term! The main problem really is that I don't need enough hours to generate a long term commitment - I've increased it for this job, and got more interest and a very good candidate - but that means I'm effectively paying for twice as many hours as I really need! And I have increased the notice period to give myself more of a chance to sort things out if(when) this one leaves!
(Sorry, that was probably more than you wanted to know!)

Totally understand elliott - I used to employ a nanny on a 50 hour equiv salary when I only 'needed' 33 hours - could you share her with another family to make up her pay?
I think I may have to go along the nanny route again in a few months time and I'm really not looking forward to it

Yes, this one is doing 30 hours with family one and is just about to add my job (12 hours). Still think she may decide my job is just not worth her while! My aim is to get through this year's summer holidays....

I'm at the stage when the children are in some sort of education for some part of the day, and since I work part-time my childcare need adds up to 23 hours...but choice is between paying a nanny for full time cover or taking a chance with an au pair. Can't say I fancy either option much.
Good luck Elliott, hope she's great and she stays.