Childcare vouchers during parental leave

[tostaky]

I am asking here because I don?t trust my HR dept since they said I had to take annual leave for my antenatal appointments (and I had to tell them that was wrong)

Will I still keep my childcare vouchers during parental leave? Here is the section on benefits in the staff handbook and it is not clear to me? Does it means ?no? but then again I did receive them during my mat leave, is parental leave differenet to mat leave in respect to childcare vouchers?

There is no right to payment during leave, nor is there any right to maintenance of contractual benefits except that notice periods and redundancy entitlements must be maintained. However XXXXX will continue to provide existing employer paid insurance benefits cover for staff taking parental leave

Thanks

With the scheme that we are in, we cannot maintain CCVs through maternity leave because HMRC don't allow salary sacrifices to be deducted from SMP. Parental leave is pretty much the same as mat leave, isn't it?

Ah well Ellypoo... if you talk to Flowery she can explain you that it is your companie obligation to maintain the childcare voucher during mat leave (otherwise it is discrimation). i think there is a loophole somewhere...

here is the email i sent to my HR department two years ago on flowery advice:
Despite having seen on the Intranet that the provision of childcare vouchers will be suspended during my maternity leave, the following HRMC document clearly states (page 13) that any non-cash benefits including childcare voucher should be paid while on SMP.

www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/sml-salary-sacrifice.pdf (which is also accessible through Halnet > halnet/Staff/Choices/ChildCare.asp )

It would seem that if by law, XXMY COMPANYXX is not able to make any deduction from SMP, I am still entitled to childcare vouchers during the first 26 weeks of maternity leave. See page 12 of HMRC document: "When a woman is on statutory maternity leave there is no statutory obligation that she should continue to receive remuneration from her employer. However the terms and conditions of her employment may entitle her normally to receive benefits other than remuneration."

and here is the answer from my HR dept:
You are correct and the advise given by HRMC is something that XXXX are adhering to, the intranet will be updated when we re-launch Benefits in March. In order to continue your vouchers whilst on maternity you will need to notify us when you go on maternity and we will ensure that these are ordered every month for you.

Hence my question about parental leave.....