Childcare vouchers

[87Shadow87]

Hi, I am a nanny who has just come across something I haven't needed to consider before, Childcare vouchers.

I am currently working for a family 4 days a week and have had another lady get in contact with me to ask if I could do a few hours per week for her on my week day off, I agreed to go and meet and have a chat with her and meet her children.

This lady is looking at wanting to pay me in childcare vouchers and I was just wondering if anybody could help me with the following questions..

How easy/difficult this is for me to set up? So I know if it's worth my time for the few hours work extra per week and is this something I am able to do, considering I am a nanny who is not employed by this lady? (I am ofsted registered)

Thanks in advance

You are Ofsted registered so it should not be too difficult. You need to know who is providing the vouchers, some companies outsource to voucher providers like Edenred, Sodexo, Faircare.

Doing one day per week, even if just a few hours each week, is employment, so the lady would need to setup payroll.

If it will be occasional, then it may fit with self employment, so you could put through your business accounts in the same way you would with evening babysitting.

A key thing to remember with vouchers is that you must not give a refund direct to the parent, you must contact the voucher provider and follow whatever procedure they have for making the payment back to the voucher provider.

If it is just occasional, not every week and you do not already run your own small business providing ad-hoc childcare, then it could be more of a problem. You may not want to run your own small business providing ad-hoc care, having multiple clients using you for daytime/evening ad-hoc care/babysitting.
Keeping basic accounts and completing a tax return is not that hard but is a bit of a learning curve the first year you do it. There is an allowance you can use called Trading Allowance which allows you to earn up to £1000 without declaring it but if this lady wants you to work quite often then you will exceed the £1000 limit for Trading Allowance.

Thank you for your help