Childcare vouchers .. built up a large fund!

[justwondering23]

I have been salary sacrificing for childcare vouchers and have kept doing so despite ds not really needing them now as he is at school as I thought we might have another child. I don't think we will now and I have built up a largish fund which I know I can use until he is sixteen on after school clubs and holiday care but I'm worried that the childcare voucher provider may go bust or something might happen so was thinking I should stop and just have the money ( albeit much less) instead. I think it's 243 a month in vouchers which in my hand cash would be 165

Has anyone else been in this situation?

Yes, I carried on at £243 for the first year or so of school, but it was building up very quickly so I then went down to £50pcm. I spend it on holiday club etc. I stopped completely at the end of Y2 and am now just spending my balance.

I suspect that the places accepting them will slowly dwindle over the years, now that the new tax-free childcare scheme is up and running.

I'd personally stay in the scheme but drop your contribution to the minimum amount.

Watching with interest, thanks for posting OP. I've had 6 months of £243 that wasn't paid on to nursery! I have the same fear that as the vouchers are phased out there will be fewer clubs etc accepting them. Does anyone know of a website or list of places to use them? I know it's OFSTED registered activities, my daughter is only just 3. Alternatively can they be requested back from the voucher company as cash?

No I think once it's converted to a voucher it's use it or lose it

I hadn't thought about fewer places taking them but that's s good point

I presume they just sit in the pot until you use them even if you change employers .. I hope so

Similar here now changed to £1 per month just to keep scheme running. Not sure what I'm actually going to do with the balance though as no childcare needed since starting school.

I've left two companies since the scheme started. For both I still had access to the accounts afterwards and just continued using the vouchers until they were gone.

I think you can withdraw from the scheme and pay the tax... or I believe that PGL accept them!

You can get them refunded. DH went through his internal payroll dept, it was quick and easy, but you obvs have to pay tax.

Yes PGL take them. This means an overnight holiday of several days for your future teen. 😁 We have built up a large pot too. Supercamps are fantastic and they take them. Is recommend just reducing to the minimum amount if you can afford to. 13 weeks a year is a lot of time to cover as working parents.

I'm pretty sure they have an expiry date so you might want to check that first. I think mine are valid for up to 2 years.

No, they should be valid up until age 16.

Stagecoach also take them, I think. Or you could use them to pay for an Ofsted registered nanny if you want babysitting.

Yes I did this as we were ttc until my youngest was in year 3. It hasn't taken that long to run down the reserve - there are some brilliant but expensive holiday activity clubs which we probably wouldn't have stretched to if it was coming out of the bank account in post-tax cash but were affordable because of the vouchers.

I think the money is reasonably safe. The old system is closing to new entrants but will keep going for as long as there are existing parents using it so probably at least the next decade. I would expect the companies to start merging and consolidating in about 5 years time as the market shrinks but the funds will remain protected. There are strict rules governing voucher companies so they can't divert your funds for their operating costs.

Re. expiry dates, it depends on the provider. My scheme doesn’t have an expiry, just valid until 15/16.

DH’s scheme says two year expiry. We challenged this and we’re told that HMRC recommends that all providers use expiry dates on vouchers to minimise chances that a parent will end up with stockpiled vouchers that they don't need, but if we needed to extend expiry dates we could by contacting the Helpdesk. So there is an expiry date but it can be extended!

Don’t know where they’d legally sit if the vouchers expired and we tried to claim them, but it seems that a few people have struggled with this.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/work-salary/news/my-5000-childcare-vouchers-expired---and-no-one-told-me/amp/

Some companies will allow a refund which is subject to tax and NI but not all do it depends on ththe terms of the agreement between the employer and the childcare voucher company.

Dh’s Employer did not stop taking the contributions when asked but could not reverse the transactions. In the end they gave DH a ‘bonus’ of the equivalent amount to mean we weren’t out of pocket.

We still have a CCV balance of nearly £1,000 and our youngest is 14! Can’t see it being used.

PGL definitely take them (for UK holidays only though) as have used them for that before. Unfortunately our 14yo no longer wants to go on PGL so I think ours will sit there until they expire frustratingly.

That's really helpful re. Refunds and how to use them. Thanks.

Make sure you keep an eye on your balance!
Like you, we had built up quite a stock pile which we no longer needed for nursery. We used them to pay for holiday club which was great but didn’t need them one school holiday and when I logged in to make a payment next time the account was empty. It took a bit of investigating but Sodexo insisted this was their policy to ensure you weren’t using them for children over 16 The vouchers were put back but it took a few weeks and happened to us again the following year. Thankfully all of ours are used up now.

I have £1000s but am on mat leave and my employer is contributing. When I go back to work I'll drop down to £20 per month and i know those £1000s will get used up!

Glad you posted this , OP. I've got a balance of over £3k! My 2 kids are both under 10, but I will reduce the amount I pay asap. I've worked out I have just over two years of after-school fees in the coffers!

I just ask my company to get the money transferred back into my wages from time to time so I've never got more than around £1.5k in it as I rarely use it, quite useful for saving money