Childcare vouchers paid directly to carer by employer - how long are they valid for?

[Leah4]

Hi, my employer has agrreed to providing these vouchers. My ds is due to start with his childminder in September. My manager wants to pay the CM directly rather than going through a scheme. The alternative is for my company to provide a receipt to the CM, and the CM will then have to send this receipt to my company in order to receive payment by cheque.

I thought I could start saving the vouchers from July, but how can I do this if my employer will be paying this out by standing order, and I don't yet have any fees? Or could I save the vouchers up and then have July's and August voucher amount taken from my September salary?

Thanks!

I think the expiry is entirely up to your manager if they're going to go direct. My DP runs his own business and pays the nursery direct by standing order, and we give them a voucher every month as well.

As long as your manager is happy for you to save up the vouchers, you can give three lots of them to your CM in September and she can claim all of them at once and put the money onto your 'account' with her, iyswim.

Make sure you do get an actual voucher/piece of paper even if he's paying direct, as otherwise the Inland Revenue might decide it's a taxable benefit and tax you on it.

HTH

NIM02413 says that it is a non-cash voucher. Can be electronic or paper based. Can be exchanged "immediately or after a time".
So it would be up to your employer to state on the voucher, when it expired (or more likely, when a new voucher would need to be reissued to replace the expired one).

Perhaps your manager could start by creating paper vouchers, which you can then keep for a while. Then once childcare commences, childminder can provide their bank details, and your manager can then set up a standing order (or whatever) to pay future vouchers, plus enable you to exchange your saved up paper vouchers, to pay the childminder.

Hope that makes some sense. With luck your companies accountant can sort things out.

what a pain for the childminder though. Can you convince them to take the money from your monthly salary? Seems very archaic.

Can i just say again - you HAVE to have some sort of voucher trail for the Inland Revenue if you're not going through a scheme. you can't just set up a standing order and leave it at that, you have to give the CM a voucher with a number on it every month, even if it's an electronic document.

dedicated schemes don't need to because childcare vouchers is all they do so it's clear that it's childcare voucher payments, but if it's your employer paying your CM direct, you need a paper trail, so that if they get audited they can see that the money is for childcare vouchers, iyswim.

so says our accountant, anyhew.

My employer credits them to my childcare voucher company every month. I then pay her with e-vouchers monthly.

I thought they were all monthly Dp's is

um, not sure if that was for me but obviously I mean taking the money from monthly salary and putting into the voucher scheme (accor or similar) then passing money electronically to cm

ah, I see hana - thing is the op's employer seems to be keen on not using a scheme. And if there's only one employee who needs childcare vouchers, as it is at DP's business, the schemes can be ridiculously cumbersome and not at all cost effective.

sorry for being a little too firm in my response!