How can I persuade my employer to register with a childcare voucher provider

[mairmaid]

How easy is it for an employer to register with a childcare voucher scheme. I've asked mine to look into it and sent them the HMRC link. By return email, the financial administrator has asked me if I expect them to pay £243 of my childcare a month. Of course I don't - I didn't word the email that badly and had sent relative links. I asked them to appreciate that my contract runs out in March 2011 and that I didn't sign up to the contributory pension scheme because I didn't get any info about it. I'm really concerned that I will be out of work as it is a big grant employing 100 people on similar jobs which ends in March 2011. It really sucks working short term contracts for voluntary orgs. Has anyone got any employer experience of setting up childcare voucher schemes.

Tell them it saves them money! They don't pay National Insurance on your vouchers, so it could save them a few hundred pounds a year.

Well it's relatively easy and not costly, although it does involve some administration time especially with the set up. Problem is if you're only there for another 6 months and there's not loads of people demanding it, they are unlikely to bother just for you for such a short time.

"Family-friendly employers are winning the battle to attract and retain working parents, who now make up over a third of the UK workforce. These forward-thinking companies ? who offer flexible, tangible benefits to help employees with dependent children - naturally become more attractive to employees."
"Childcare vouchers are a great way of giving your employees flexible, practical help - and saving money too. The cost of setting up and running a scheme is less than the savings your business makes. So it really does save you money."

Your business doesn?t pay National Insurance on childcare vouchers ? so you can save up to £370 per year for every employee who signs up to your scheme.

link

The 'saving them money' bit might swing it!

They don't necessarily need to register with a voucher provider; an organisation can create its own vouchers and administer these itself. The basic priciple is that the employee hands over a voucher to the nursery and the nursery has to submit this to the employer in order to redeem this for payment. The voucher needs to include some set information, but any employer can design their own voucher. It's really not much work for the employer and they will save all the employer NI on the value of the voucher, so it's a net saving for them.

various of us have tried all these arguments plus more on my employer over the last 5 years with no success. It all depends on how willing they are to help.