Phasing out of childcare vouchers

[Tempjob]

Does anyone know what the phasing out of childcare vouchers will involve?

My husband has saved more than £2000 in Edenred / Computershare childcare vouchers that he uses during the summer holidays for his DC. Is it likely that in the future there will be childminders around who will be able to accept these vouchers? He is worried the childcare vouchers will become unusable as the new scheme is rolled out.

Why would they be phased out?

The vouchers scheme is closing to new members. People already registered aren't affected yet.

They're being replaced by the tax-free childcare scheme, which is more accessible as you don't have to have an employer to get the benefit as you do with the childcare vouchers. There are other difference too but your circumstances will determine which scheme is best for you. I doubt childcare vouchers will be valid forever but atm you can continue to accrue and use childcare vouchers as long as you're in the scheme and stick with the same employer.

@apokesthehare do you have any more info on the new scheme?

I’ve beeb freelance a while so not upnto date on what’s happening.

childcare-support.tax.service.gov.uk/par/app/eligibility

Tmgc123 are you part of any vouchers scheme now? I'm assuming not if you're freelance. We moved from vouchers to the new scheme last year when we were both self-employed. I'm employed now and could join a vouchers scheme but I think we'll save more this was because DH still can't do vouchers (which I believe saves approx 900 per parent per year)

Edenrwd emailed very recently about them closing accounts that haven’t been paid into recently. Is he still paying in? I’ve got quite a bit saved in too, but I have a monthly input so I’m just going to continue with this.

@applesthehare no I’m not using vouchers! I will read this thank you, I was under the impression the new system would be fit a lot less people but that was hearing it from other people!

Thanks all. We are concerned that we will not find a childminder who can accept the vouchers, or that the account will be closed without refund on the money there. DH is retired now so not paying in each month.

I think this question is relevant to all parents who save the vouchers each month to use for summer holidays, as they may have saved hundreds or even thousands of vouchers to use at a later date.

As far as I was aware vouchers will still be valid but just no one new could claim them.
The voucher scheme is better for most people so I think lots will continue to use it for some time yet.

You could always ask a childminder to register with your provider.
I think ours had to register with mine as they didn’t accept them at the time but now do.
Ours accepts CCV from 3/4 different providers.

This is worrying as I have around £2k in edenred

I'm assuming that we'll get a chance
To redeem what we've 'saved' exc tax of course (which I do from time to time now often to pay for holidays as I stack up quite a bit of cash in this scheme regularly these days)

The vouchers are not stopping they are just stopping for new entrants from April 2018.

You’ll be able to use them past this date.