Childcare Voucher Schemes - I just do not get this at all. Is there anyone out there that administers them?

[foxinsocks]

So I get how they work.

But now I want to start the scheme at work. There are so few of us with children, I can't see the point in using one of the companies that does the vouchers for us because it won't be cost effective.

So, where can I get the vouchers from if I want to issue them? Or can I just make the maximum payment myself (the £55 per week or whatever it works out per month) direct to the childcarers of the employees and just make sure I comply with the requirements as laid out by HMRC/Ofsted?

There just doesn't seem to be one body that can answer questions about them.

Have you seen HMRC section for employers on childcare?

ah ha

do you administer them?

I understand how they work but want to do them myself for our employees not to use someone else .

Am not an employer but I think that you have to use one of the agencies and I didn't think it cost anything?

No have never administered them foxinsocks, introduced them with one company I worked for, we used one of the agencies though - we didn't have any spare capacity to do it ourselves.

thanks, yes fbb - I've read all that. I know how they work but can't understand where I get the vouchers from iyswim...whether they are in a standard format or if I can just print out a 'voucher' myself and hand it to the employee.

THey say it doesn't cost anything but once you get down to it, it does. They deduct it off your savings and in our case, certainly to start with, there will only be 2 people eligible for it so it seems pointless using a big company, especially when I could easily do it myself if I was confident I could do so!

I will be pissed off if I have to use one of them. Bloody profiteering.

Maybe I'll call HMRC - that's always fun .

I do all the salary payments etc. anyway, so it's no big deal for me to restructure someone's salary and pay a small amount somewhere else (once it's set up).

fox - you definitley don't need to use a voucher provider.

Our financial administrator did it for me.

I had a letter written as an ammendment / letter of agreemenst to my contract, saying that i would receive childcare assistance as a salary sacrifice - or whatever the correct wording is.

Then I simply got our nursery to invoice my workplace direct for the maximum amount allowed under the tax-free scheme, and they invpiced me for the balance. My work paid the nursery direct.

In fact DP did the same through his work, too, so we got two lots of tax-free childcare allowance.

All that is needed is an invoice and a receipt to your employer from an ofsted registered childcare provider eligible within the scheme.

i.e we didn't involve vouchers at all.

The upside for the employer is then that they save the on-costs for the amount paid as 'salary sacrifice' and DON'T have to cough up for voucher providers.

we have a non-voucher salary sacrifice scheme at work. I don't administer it though and it is a large employer but it can be done.

ahh excellent. That's what I was hoping. I don't know why they can't just bloody well say that somewhere lol.

Yes, I will do the salary sacrifice thing and will issue an amendment to the employee's contracts. I had to do that for cyclescheme (also salary sacrifice) anyway so I should have a template somewhere.

So your nursery was happy to invoice your employer? Did the employer speak to them or did you sort that out?

It's a longstanding system in our institution. the nursery (it's an inhouse nursery though) sends over the details of hours, you sign up for an annual contract with the finance dept confirming your salary and the reduction, then finance send out a monthly account to me, outlining how much they're drawing down/up from my salary (there is always an adjustment at the end of the year).

I know nothing of the tax issues though as only a consumer of the system!

Remember to advise on the pension implications!!

good tip jan

I think it must affect those on WFTC too as I don't think you can include the childcare costs that the employer will pay on your tax credits form

I think I put that in the contract amendment bit last time (the pension issue and other benefits linked to salary). I don't reduce the pension based on the salary post salary sacrifices though - I keep it at its pre sacrifice level.

When we were the only people at DH's work with kids, we did what Blu does - got his work to pay the nursery direct. It was less flexible than vouchers because we couldn't alter the amount each month etc, but it worked well. I think the nursery had a standard contract that they sent the employers to sign.

FIS that's generous (I am presuming you mean the employer contribution to their pension). Though if they are not opted out of the state second pension it will affect them, won't it? We also found it affected maternity pay etc.

yes, employers and employees. I think it's mean and a bit tight fisted to downgrade pay/benefits based on post salary sacrifice salary so I don't do it .

Well done FIS for setting this up for your colleagues! Just a couple of thoughts from my experience:

• if you've sorted out salary sacrifice for cyclescheme I'm sure you understand most of the issues
• for CCVs the provider has to be on the Ofsted register
• if your colleagues all use different providers of childcare, the invoicing/payments could be a bit complicated/annoying - only you know how hard that will hit you
• look at www.childcarevouchers.co.uk - this is the Accor site. Even without signing up with them they have a reasonable amount of information available. You just have to read between the lines as it all assumes you'll use a provider.
• We use Accor and they charge I think it's 9%. No issue of "cost-effective" as there's no discount for larger employers as far as I know. However it is less than the employers NI, so the company still makes a saving.
• Consider how much of your time will be taken up administering this - and whether that is worth more or less to the employer than the saving.

HTH. Good luck.