Childcare Vouchers As A Nursery Deposit

[DC905210]

I apologise in advance because I assume questions get raised on here all the time.

My wife is having a full year off to be with our baby before returning to work in January 2017.

I went back to work last week after having three months of so immediately asked to buy childcare vouchers.

The nursery we are going to send our baby too is £180 per week (which seems pretty reasonable compared to some figures I have heard banded about) and they want two weeks paid as a deposit.

Can we use childcare vouchers to pay that deposit?

If it makes any difference to anything the voucher provider is Care-4. I have been on their site and can't find the answer.

[Dlah]

Deputy of a nursery here, and I sort all the finance/vouchers - including Care4. We will take vouchers for deposit - no different to cash, cheque or BACS, shouldn't be any reason why wont accept :)

[FishWithABicycle]

Our nursery didn't accept vouchers for the deposit. It makes sense not to as when DC left to go to school the deposit was refunded to us and the nursery would definitely get into trouble if audited and found to be effectively allowing you to dodge tax. That £360 in vouchers is from gross untaxed income and if they refund the deposit in real money they have enabled you to dodge £72 or £144 of tax (depending on whether DH is a higher rate tax payer). Obviously they wouldn't be able to give a refund in vouchers as the nursery can't issue them.

[insancerre]

• not likely

[insancerre]

Your best bet is to ring the nursery and ask
All nurseries are different and you are not unlikely to get the correct answer from users of other nurseries
I'm a nursery manager and I would have no problems faith new parents and asking any question. That's my job.

[Iizzyb]

We have care-4 vouchers at work. Can't see any reason why they couldn't be used for the nursery deposit. Just be aware that once you pay in you can only use the money for childcare so I would only pay in the amount that you need to to get the max benefit from your NI savings. I used to pay in a lot more when my nursery bill was higher (now have 15 hours free childcare so pay less) and I've knocked my payments down so I just benefit from the NI savings & no more if that makes sense? V easy to pay through care-4 just make sure you pick the right nursery. Care-4 said pick the head office to pay when in fact I needed to look further & find the actual nursery my son goes to

[Cindy34]

Ask the nursery. If they don't accept them for the deposit, then you may be able to stockpile vouchers for a while and pay the nursery fees directly using several vouchers at once. Your employers voucher scheme provider will be able to tell you about how vouchers can be stockpiled for a while and used to pay a registered childcare provider.