Nursery vouchers

[Jennyhere]

my babies not due until next year but I was wondering if any one knows about nursery care vouchers. Is there such I thing, who gets them and who do you go to. thanks

dh gets them from his employer - we pass them onto the nursery and they pay for a chunk of our childcare, probably only about £20 or £30 a week but better than a poke in the eye with a short stick. my workplace has a subsidised nursery and I think that's why they don't do vouchers.

Is it an employment scheme or state scheme?

They are a state scheme. Everywhere takes them, even childminders. However, they are only worth it if you are a lower rate tax payer.

If you're talking about the same ones I get then it's not a state scheme exactly (it's operated via your employers payroll - if your employer chooses to do it, which most don't), but it is government and inland revenue approved. Also it's whether you're inside the National Insurance ceiling (or at least over it by as much as the cost of your nursery fees) which is the limiting factor, not which tax band you're in, as it's possible to be over the NI ceiling but still a lower rate tax payer.

See this thread for details and links to providers.

I think if you get working families tax credit and you are a single parent or both of you work over 16 hours a week, you can also get up to 70% of yopur childcare costs paid, but I think this is included in the payment to you, not in the form of vouchers.

Children over 3 get free nursery care (up to 5 mornings or afternoons per week). You can have the money paid directly to a private nursery or take a place at a state one (the state one we use is far better than any of the private ones round here). Don't know of anything available to under 3's though unless its employer based.

We qualified for Working families tax credit (just) which meant we got 50p per week but we also got money towards nursery care. You have to work a certain number of hours per week to qualify but it did help a lot. However its all changed now hasn't it so I'm not sure what happens with the new system. Better read the form I suppose. I've been hiding from it!

Katherine, I live in London and have been told that only 4 years olds qualify in our area (and only 212 places for the whole borough, ie not everyone automatically qualifies). I rang our council and was told this but maybe I wasn't asking the right people, where did you hear that all 3 year olds get vouchers?

Janus - it depends purely on area. If there is a large 4 yr old population in the area, then there is unlikely to be sufficient funding left over for 3 yr olds.

Where I live, 3 yr olds have been funded for over 2 years now but over the boundary line to the next funding authority (about 500 yards down the road!) they only got funding this year.

Apparently "The Nursery Education Grant for 3 year olds introduced by the Government in 1999/2000 and is being phased in across the Country. The Government target is to make free places available for all 3 year olds whose parents wish to take them up by 2004. It should be noted that the Government expects 85% of children to be funded by 2004."

What it doesn't say in that press release (and I can't find specified anywhere else) is how long they're supposed to be funded for as three year olds according to that target.

Where I live it's from the start of the term of their 4th birthday - which means a 1st September baby will actually be 4 before they get "3 year old funding". A friend living just a couple of miles away, but across the border in a different council area will get funding from the start of the term after their 3rd birthday - so at only just 3 for her late August baby.

Sorry if I misled anyone. Didn't realise it varied around the country like that. Guess we are lucky here in Derbyshire. Think its pretty apalling that there should be so much variation though.

I wonder if the thread is confused about 2 things.

There are the vouchers for nursery care that apply to 3+yo. This is definitely what most of you are talking about. The age when they apply varies by where you apply. I was under impression this is something the nursery claims direct from the local authority.

There are also childcare vouchers (what GillW talks about) -- basically your employer can claim back NI on the same amount that you pay into nursery. It doesn't matter how old your child is, but the vouchers aren't usable for childminders. I guess it works out to a reduction of about 10% of the nursery bill. How it works is your employer pays the amount that you normally pay to nursery, to a third party (there are companies set up just to handle the childcare vouchers). You get vouchers in your pay packet (like Bundle talks about). You give the vouchers to nursery, they send vouchers off to third party company, who pay nusery back in real money. I seem to recall one of the third party companies is called Busy Bees....

On top of that, the new tax rebate scheme, coming in next April, relies on your income in the tax year 2000-2001. Keep that in mind -- like we won't be eligible for much, in spite of an expected (well, I expect) income of just £16k, because we earnt too much in 2000-2001.

Katherine, I think the money for 3+ yr olds comes the term after they are 3 (so my nursery told me) so if you're paying for a private place the cost comes down quite a bit. also if your child only does part-time you can still claim for 5 days as long as they aren't in any other nursery eg nursery bit of a primary school. i think it's called the specific grant??

zebra the nursery vouchers (the ones you get from your employer) can be used to pay registered childminders, or even unregistered family members (your mother or your sister say).

The nursery school ones aren't really vouchers as such (though they were once, hence the confusion), just nursery funding - usually paid directly to the nursery. You fill in a form and then they claim the money from the local council on your behalf. You either pay nothing if it's an LEA nursery and you only send your child for the 15 hours a week the grant covers, or they deduct the amount (it's about £600 a term I think) from the fees if you're paying more and/or for sending them for longer than that.

I think it's disgusting the variation in free care across the country. Here (Cumbria) I get 5 free sessions for my son, when he was only just 3, with no means testing at all. And of course he will be in full time school when he is just 4.

In Oxfordshire even single mums on benefits have to pay for any playgroup sessions until their children are 4, and qualify for nursery. And then they don't start school until they are 5, so if you want them in nursery/playgroup for full days you have to pay for it.

Yes, there is a huge variation across the country in when you can claim the pre-school vouchers. Some counties don't even give them at all (Monmouthshire) - I spotted this in the documentation, as I had to do the voucher claim for our local playgroup (in Gloucestershire, we get them from the second term after age 3). Sounds about as efficient as most other public funding in this country.