Childcare Vouchers: What you need to know

Childcare Vouchers can help working parents to save money on the cost of their childcare. It’s that simple!

All you do is ask your employer to swap a part of your salary each month for the same amount of Childcare Vouchers. Your take-home pay will be marginally less but your Childcare Vouchers are deducted before tax and National Insurance contributions, so you’ll be saving a small fortune over the year.

The savings you achieve can leave you with up to £1,196* extra for the things you want, whether that’s a family holiday in the sun or the all important renewal of your football season ticket – it’s entirely up to you.

Once you have received your Childcare Voucher each month, you simply hand it over to the carer who looks after your child/children and they accept it as payment. They contact the issuing Childcare Voucher provider to redeem the Voucher, the value of which will be sent directly to their bank account.

Tell them they should as it doesn’t cost them anything! This is when people power can be at its most effective, so put together your case with some colleagues and lobby your HR or payroll department. By reading this article and searching on the Internet, you’ll get all the information you need to persuade them.

Offering a Childcare Voucher scheme can save your employer money too, as they don’t pay National Insurance contributions on the value of Childcare Vouchers you receive. It can also improve staff retention and morale, as it is an employee benefit that will help many of your colleagues. They won’t need to do any administration, either, because your Childcare Voucher provider will handle all of that on their behalf.

During the credit crunch, when employers are staying away from bonuses and pay rises; setting up an employee benefit that can save money for both them and their staff with children has surely got to be a winner!

Once your employer is warming to the idea of setting up a Childcare Voucher scheme, they should contact a well-established, reputable provider for more information. Busy Bees Childcare Vouchers is the largest dedicated Childcare Voucher provider but there are other suppliers to choose from as well. As soon as your employer has decided to launch a scheme, you and your colleagues will be able to join up and start saving money.

Check your staff handbook and ask the HR or payroll team what benefits are already offered. Many parents may not even be aware they could be tapping into a Childcare Voucher scheme because once they’ve gone through a company induction, the handbook and handouts are often left at the bottom of a drawer in the office.

If you find that your employer runs a Childcare Voucher scheme, get signed up. All you will need to do is call your employer’s provider or log on to their website and register online. It’s easy to join Childcare Voucher schemes and it doesn’t require endless administration or form signing, either at the initial stage or on-going.

For more information, log on to www.busybeesvouchers.com or call 08000 430 860.

Childcare Vouchers: Just the facts

The scheme is open to basic and higher rate tax-payers 

They can be used to pay for childcare for children up to the age of 16

Both parents can request Childcare Vouchers, doubling the potential savings to £2,392* a year

Childcare Vouchers are accepted by thousands of registered carers across the UK, there’s no need to change who looks after your child 

You can save your Childcare Vouchers to use in school holidays – fantastic if you’ve got older children who perhaps only use activity holidays in the summer! 

Most importantly, it doesn’t cost you a penny!