buying childcare vouchers when on maternity leave

[wombleprincess]

can i do this if I am not receiving maternity pay? can my husband if our baby is not yet in childcare?

here It looks like your husband can. Not sure about you since there would obv be no salary sacrifice involved.

Sorry, see here (Moneysavingexpert.com page on Childcare Vouchers)

I believe that (for complicated legal reasons) you should carry on getting your benefits, including Childcare Vouchers at the level you were getting before maternity leave, throughout maternity leave, even when you re not being paid. Check out HMRC website. It is confusing, and to be honest, seems a little unfair for the employer.

sorry i dont understand, why are childcare vouchers unfair for the employer?

Presumably you weren't claiming them before ML so the benefits continuation would n't apply to this. I think you'd need to check your scheme but unlikely since they cannot deduct from SMP.

DH and I both carried on paying into this thoughout my ML but this was over a year ago so things may have changed. But I had decent maternity pay. We have only just finished using up the bank of money that we stored up while I was on leave.

Not unfair on the employer - they lose nothing at all from this scheme. It is the taxman that loses out on the money that you save.