KIT days and childcare vouchers

[MamaChocoholic]

I am now 9 months into maternity leave and on zero pay. However, my childcare vouchers are still being paid by my employer. If I do any KIT days, will the cost of the vouchers come out of these? I have some to do, but my dept secretary huffs and puffs everytime, and if the wages I'd earn would be used simply to pay the childcare vouchers, I'd rather not bother claiming them. If it would be extra money, then I will put up with any amount of huffing and puffing! Does anyone know?

Yes. They can't take any deductions from SMP. Anything else is fair game.

Afraid so - I fell foul of this when I was on maternity leave...and I should know better as I work in HR!!

I think the vouchers will be taken out if your KIT pay.

ouch! so only worth claaiming if I can do more than £243 worth of KIT days in a month? what about if I claimed for all of them when I return to work? will they back calculate? I still haven't been paid for two I did back in March, if I get paid for them now it will go straight to childcare vouchers, won't it? which is a pain as I had to pay for childcare for those days. grr.

thanks for the info and sorry to reply with a bunch more questions

Can you have your KIT days as time instead of money?

Not necessarily. KIT pay should be your normal pay for a day because you are doing a day's work albeit on a training course or familiarisation day. So, if you would nornally get childcare vouchers over and above your 'pay' then you should be treated no less favourably while on maternity leave. If your employer normally deducts the cost of childcare vouchers from your pay then it would be reasonable for them to do so for a KIT day as the reverse equally applies i.e. you shouldn't be better off either. The only way to know for certain is to ask your H R dept.

yes, my vouchers are normally deducted. if my KIT day total comes to less than £243 then there is clearly no point claiming, as I will get the same whatever (I've already done way more than 10 days work during this leave - I was stupidly saving the days I'd claim till I wasn't getting paid anymore). but if I put in the claim for 8 days in one single month, even if the days were spread over a few months, then they would come to more than £243. I'm just wondering if they'd bother back calculating and deduct vouchers they'd already paid or just deduct the £243 for that month from the 8 days worth of pay. I can ask HR but it will be obvious I'm trying to work out how to claim to get the maximum benefit.

actually, I will ask about taking KIT days as time instead. then I could come back a bit earlier (ie get paid) and use the KIT days as leave... good idea! somehow because it's such a good idea I doubt I'll be allowed to do it. but worth a try

I wouldn't worry about being obvious. It is a reasonable question - should I decide to come in on a KIT day what will the impact be on my childcare vouchers?