Childcare vouchers and maternity leave - we've gotta fight for our rights!!

[ceebee74]

This is a spin off from an ante-natal thread but feel free to join in if you are in this situation - there are currently 3 of us trying to get to the bottom of the new legislation that has just come in.

Vbab&Sparkle - what I meant by 'paying twice' may not affect you if you just receive statutory maternity pay whilst on mat leave - but my employer has quite a generous scheme so I get 8 weeks at full pay, 18 weeks at half pay plus SMP and the final 13 weeks at SMP only - so they can still deduct the vouchers for the first 26 weeks of my mat leave as I am receiving something other than SMP.

However the amount of my maternity pay is calculated on the average I earned during 17-25th weeks of pg so, if I had still taken the vouchers during those weeks, my salary would have been lower (as it would have been on an amount with the vouchers deducted) therefore my mat pay would be based on the lower amount and then during my mat leave, as I receive Occupational Maternity Pay, they would also have deducted the £243 vouchers aswell - so technically I would have paid twice for them - does that make sense?

It doesn't really affect you if you only receive SMP apart from the first 6 weeks.

Anyway, going to work out the figures now as I do think, if it is right that you can't have it both ways, I have picked the best option for me.

But, when I cancelled my vouchers in July, the woman at our voucher provider knew it was so my pay would not be affected and she confirmed I could restart them in September so I am a bit confused about this stopping and restarting business. Will try and find out more.

This info is really useful. I am currently pregnant with my second child and pay £243 in childcare vouchers for my little boy. I work for the NHS and my HR dept have been totally unhelpful to date. Apparently I'm the first person to highlight the new legislation and the provision of childcare vouchers by employees during SMP. For those of you who work in the NHS and have been successful in getting your trust to pay for your childcare vouchers - which documents did you draw to your HR depts attention or who did you contact to get clear guidance. I found the document on the HMRC website quite complicated and ambigious. Thanks for your help with this. Its quite difficult to get my head round it with all the hormones!!

just getting back on this thread
Have a meeting with maternity advisor soon.

do I have to stop them by 17 weeks?
Oh no...

well I'll be 17 weeks on saturday so I suppose technically I'll have them stopped by then

Is your mat pay definitely calculated on your salary - vouchers? So if you then still get vouchers, you'll be paying twice for them, in effect (but you get them paid for you in the last 6 months?)

Update to my post of 23rd Oct 2008!

Well better later than never

Ds1 is now 18 weeks - and I have eventually got an answer from the HR and payroll departments - after much chasing mind you - I think they thought I would forget about it whilst I was on maternity leave.

I work in Local Government and have carried on getting childcare vouchers (even in my qualifying weeks) and it hasn't effected my OMP and SMP etc.

They have confirmed that I will get childcare vouchers in the period that I am on no pay and have confirmed that this will be a cost to the Local Authority.

How bloody brilliant is this - in effect a £750ish windfall I wasn't expecting - very welcome when I am no pay with 3dc!

Hope this is of help to others - and a huge thanks to ceebee74 for highlighting this!

bump

It just gets better!

I've just re-read the article that I printed from the Daycare Trust and it states that SMP cannot be reduced by a salary sacrifice scheme.

I thought my SMP would be reduced by £250 a month and I would therefore be left with a negligible amount of SMP but it seems that the childcare vouchers are in addition - yippee!!!

I await my May payslip with eager anticipation and will report back.

bump for info

SMP cannot be reduced by the value of your vouchers as stat payments cannot be sacrificed. CCV's are classed as a Non-cash benefit unrelated to the fact that when earning you sacrifice your salary to obtain these vouchers. When not earninng, therefore nothing to sacrifice, you are still entitled to the non-cash benefit per the new SD regs.

Although SMP is calculated on your sacrificed salary, this is likely only to affect your first 6 weeks of payment - that which is paid at 90% of your earnings. If you are in receipt of vouchers beyond your q period, do not opt out, as you will be entitled to receive your vouchers for the full duration of your Mat leave. In fact if may be worth your while NOT to opt out before your q period either and receive the vouchers instead - do a few sums.....

Bumping this thread in the hope someone can assist!

So, have I got this right? Here is my situation and before I go and speak to my employers I want to make sure I've got my facts right:

I was part of a salary sacrifice scheme for my Busy Bees vouchers.

I did not pull out of the scheme in order to calculate my SMP

I started my ML this month (DS2 born 2nd May)

My employers seem unaware of this change in the law and are not (I assume) paying anything to my DS1's nursery during my ML ( as I had salary sacrifice, they were paying nursery direct before the money hit my pay check). If I have this right, they should be paying the equivalent of my salary sacrifice once my SMP starts, and this is on top of the SMP

Could they, as it seems this will cost them money, just withdraw from the scheme at any point? They are a relatively small business and if I end up costing them money, I can see them just withdrawing from the scheme.

This is so confusing and with baby brain I am struggling to get my head round it. Please let there be someone out there who can assist!!!!

Update - got my full SMP in May - and got the full £243 credited to my busybees account - yippee!

Ladyhelen - your assumption seems right to me - very similar to my situation. However, was it that the childcare vouchers (via busybees) were going to your provider rather than your employer paying - would think the employer wouldn't be involved - but you know your personal situation.

May be worth checking with busybees.

I copied the stuff from the Daycare trust (a link is at the beginning of this thread) to my HR and payroll department - this started the ball rolling but I had to chase for an answer.

HTH

ladyhelen - yes, i think you are right too. the childcare is a non-cash beenfit given to you as part of your employment with the company, whether it be direct to the nursery, or via childcare vouchers, the benefit is still there (as would medical insurance/company cars etc). This should be the case for the entirity of your mat leave.
From what i understand, then yes, they can withdraw the scheme, but they would need to withdraw it from EVERY employee (else you could claim discrimination if it were just withdrawn from you).

Just checking back in on this thread

Hotmama glad you have had a positive outcome

ladyHelen what you have said is correct - your employer needs to still provide the £243 (or whatever you are claiming) to your nursery whilst you are on maternity leave otherwise you have been discriminated against. And yes they can withdraw the scheme and unfortunately I think a lot of small businesses will do this following the new legislation

Well, mine kicks in this month as I go into just SMP then - I can just feel my boss going grrrr at the thought of giving me £243 extra a month Unfortunately I hadn't really thought things through and I had to go on a training course as a KIT day - but the money I earnt just got eaten by the vouchers - I blame baby brain

Btw congrats to everyone who has had their babies - my little boy was born in November so is over 6 months old already

Hi, I have just read this whole thread and can I jut confirm if I need to cancel my 243 voucher between weeks 17-25 or not?

Am I missing a trick here, if I am on maternity leave my dd would not be going to her childminder as she would be with me? She will at the time have just turned 3 so would I therefore be able to enrol her in a nursery say 3 mornings a week to give me a bit of time with new baby and her the activites/games/play and company of other children?

She will receive the 15 hours free/sessions at playgroup anyway so could I used this to top it up to say a full morning?

Carrielou - I didn't stop my childcare vouchers - found about this thread when I was 22 weeks anyway.

I checked with busybees and my HR department (busybees referred me to my HR department anyway - who weren't happy as they said Busybees should have been able to sort me out).

I think it is a good idea to check out with your own HR department and get the correspondence in writing - I did!

I was worried that by not stopping my childcare vouchers I would therefore effect my maternity pay but my HR department say that the 90% etc would be based on my gross salary at the time - the qualifying weeks are more to do with entitlement to SMP - not sure if this is right.

Anyway, getting childcare vouchers for the period when I am on no pay or SMP more than compensate for any reduction that I may or may not have had in my maternity pay (payslips aren't that clear to work it out with a postnatal brain).

Also, the ruse that I am doing is that rather than getting paid for any KIT time that I'm doing, I'm logging the time and taking it as extra flextime when I go back to work - agreed this with the Head of Department so I can do more KIT time than I should - which therefore benefits work - but at the same time I get the full benefits of the childcare vouchers. Don't think they have worked this one out!

I'm getting the full childcare vouchers even though I don't actually need the full value at the moment - a credit is building up in my busybees account - which will be used when my childcare costs increase when I go back to work.

HTH