Maternity leave and childcare vouchers

[thecatswhiskas]

This may have been asked and answered before but I have never received childcare vouchers before now so I’m a little unsure. Hopefully I’ve posted in the right place.
I sacrifice part of my salary each month for £200 childcare vouchers. I am due to start maternity leave end of April/ beginning of May. I will receive SMP but nothing more. Am I right in thinking that I can’t sacrifice the SMP to receive the vouchers while off? I’m assuming that I’ll still be enrolled in the scheme and can go back to sacrificing my salary once I’m back at work? I know it’s no longer open to new applicants but surely it’s like suspending the account not closing it?
Any insight gratefully received!

SMP is a Statutory benefit so you can't sacrifice that. You need to talk to your employer about what happens when you go on maternity leave as it may be down to the individual scheme rules. I would anticipate that you would be able to suspend vouchers whilst on maternity leave, but do check with your employer.

I had similar with my company car. My company paid it to the car lease company and when I returned to work I just paid it back. Might be similar for childcare vouchers?

Just thought of something... I expect you must get a childcare voucher in April pay to remain in the scheme, as otherwise you could be off work for a tax year without any vouchers.

I had a similar situation and I was able to suspend payments until I returned but the account remained open.

My company paid the childcare vouchers on top of SMP, including for the last 3 months of unpaid leave. If you look at the government website www.gov.uk/guidance/statutory-maternity-pay-employee-circumstances-that-affect-payment it's pretty clear that's what they are supposed to do, although how many do is another question !

'All non-pay contractual benefits must continue during statutory maternity leave. These may include any childcare vouchers, company car or mobile phone provided to the employee as part of their contract of employment'

I looked a bit more into why with DC1, from memory it's because the childcare vouchers are salary sacrifice. For it to count as genuine salary sacrifice and so avoid tax - it's becomes a non-pay contractual benefit which you are protected against loosing when on maternity leave.

It was 3 years ago, but when I was on mat leave with DS2, my employer paid for my child care vouchers while I was receiving SMP.

The first six weeks of leave when you receive 90% is still classed as SMP, so they paid it during that time as well.

I received 6 months of maternity pay and sacrificed salary as normal, then I got 3 months SMP then 3 months zero, and for that last 6 month period I received childcare vouchers as normal. I ticked a box on the maternity leave paperwork I did for HR to request it. So my employer paid for the vouchers instead of me, and I do not have to pay it back. I heard about this from MN so it's not just me!

They’re not allowed to stop giving you the vouchers while you’re on mat leave.
You will receive SMP in full AND your childcare vouchers and they have to cover the cost of the vouchers while you’re on mat leave.
You do not pay them back.
Anything else is illegal by them

My employer also continued to pay the Childcare Vouchers whilst on Maternity Leave/nil pay.

I got my childcare vouchers paid too whilst in SMP. In fact I was encouraged to up my voucher amount to the max (£243) in the months running up to mat leave so that my employer had to pay the full amount!

I feel I missed out now. I did not know that employer should have done this in addition to SMp. My vouchers were suspended and then was back in when back at work.

There is case law now where it is clear that the employer doesn't have to keep providing CCVs where the employee is paid SMP only, they can't deduct the sacrifice from SMP and the vouchers aren't classed as a benefit in the same way as company cars or pensions.

What case does that stem from @stinkypoo ?

So to get this straight, you can claim the full £243 a month whilst on SMP and you still get the full SMP a month? And you don’t have to payback the childcare vouchers?

I received childcare vouchers whilst on Mat Leave (in addition to SMP) but HMRC changed the guidelines in 2016 after a string of lawsuits.

Here is just one article but there are many.

www.employersforchildcare.org/news-item/update-childcare-vouchers-statutory-maternity-leave/

Thank you RNBrie I was just coming on to link similar.

Thanks for the replies. Would have been nice to continue getting them but even though I work for a good company I won’t hold my breath! At least it gives me peace of mind I’ll still be able to use them when I go back to work.

Ahhh, thanks for the update.
I got them without having to pay them back but my last mat leave was 2016 so before they updated it

I am currently getting them paid and won't have to pay them back. I do think it depends on the employer though. I might complain about them sometimes but they do come good now and again