Childcare Voucher Scheme - Can anyone please tell me if a small company takes

[couture1]

up this scheme is there a cost to the company?

I benefit from this scheme as I work for a large company, I tried to get my husbands company to take up the scheme and was told as he was the only employee who would benefit it would not be worth it.

Since then I seen on one of the threads on here that if the nursery invoice the company direct then my husband can partake in the scheme.
I sent them over the information but they have just called to say that as it would cost the company to do this they would not do it.

Now my understanding is that there is no cost to the business - can someone clarify this or give me a link to a website that explains this clearly for the lady that does the wages at my husbands place of work.

Thank you

There might not be a direct cost but a scheme like this does require someone internally to set it up and manage it, which is a "cost" to the business IYSWIM?
Plus there are all sorts of implications around offering this as a benefit (albeit a salary sacrifice) if you are a small company - for example any woman within the company on maternity leave would be entitled to the vouchers whilst on maternity leave and the company would be required to pay for these (as the cost cannot be taken out of SMP) does that make sense?!

Would there be a lot of work involved in managing this one person, if the nursery invoice the employer each month? What does the fee to the voucher company tend to be? My husbands company recently withdrew all company benefits that were offered to employess in a bid to reduce costs and save jobs. If there is a cost to partake in this scheme then they will not do it.

Bump

There are two different schemes, the childcare vouchers scheme is different from the company paid childcare scheme.

For the voucher scheme you have to pay a company a fee for managing it, but the employer saves NI as well as the employee so if you have more than a handful of employees taking vouchers there is no net cost. If there is only one employee in the scheme I suspect it will not be worth it for the employer.

But if the employer contracts directly with the nursery or childminder, there is no need to use a voucher company. It does mean some extra administration for the employer, but the saving in employer's NI make this more attractive, although if the employer does not want to place additional stress on his admin then that is up to him.

Both schemes are explained in this leaflet from HMRC.

My husband and I run a small business and set up a childcare voucher scheme for one of our employees last year.

We chose to use a company called Allsave to administer the vouchers for us. We pay them a fee of 4.5% on the value of the vouchers(about £11 per month) but this fee is offset by the Employers NI we would normally have to pay, which is more than double at 12.8%. So, we actually save a small amount.

There is a bit of work invovled, but it only takes me about 5 minutes per month max. I receive a statement by email from Allsave, which I confirm is for the correct amount, I then pay their invoice. Nothing more than that.

I don't get involved with the childcare provider or handle the vouchers at all.

The only thing is, you need to make sure your childcare provider accepts the vouchers.

You don't have to use a voucher scheme, it's just that some employers find it's easier. Yes, there is a cost to the company of using vouchers.

When my DH was the only one in his company wanting to take a salary sacrifice for childcare, we just asked the nursery to send the company a contract for £243 a month, they paid that direct, and we paid any extra.

Unfortunately it's not obligatory for a company to take part though, so if your DH's company are not keen, there's probably nothing you can do.

I am the only person in my firm who receives childcare vouchers and I essentially administer the scheme. The companies who do it for you are charging money for old rope. From a payroll perspective, my employer just direct debits the £243 per per month direct to the nursery and deducts it from my gross income (ie before tax/NI). All I do is prepare a voucher each month and get it signed by the nursery. The voucher consists of a piece of my employers letterhead paper with various details about me, my child, the nursery, and authorised signatory (ie my boss). I now have it set up so each month all I have to do is print off a new voucher, give it a new sequential number then get it signed. These then stay as a record of the fact that the £243 has been deducted from my income in case my employer ever has a PAYE inspection.