# Childcare vouchers



## Andrew_Culture (12 Oct 2012)

Not a cycling bad topic I know...

But we're struggling to figure out how we (wife and I) could afford childcare so that my wife can get back to work. At the moment she works weekends so I can look after our one year old.

I've looked into government childcare vouchers but because my wife is self-employed (she's a gardener) it would appear that we're not eligible. I was self-employed for a decade but now have a job.

Anyone got any experience in this field?


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## ohnovino (12 Oct 2012)

Childcare vouchers are paid for via your employer through PAYE, so while your wife couldn't get them you could (assuming your employer is signed up to a voucher scheme).


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## Andrew_Culture (12 Oct 2012)

ohnovino said:


> Childcare vouchers are paid for via your employer through PAYE, so while your wife couldn't get them you could (assuming your employer is signed up to a voucher scheme).



I tried for a year to get my employer onto the cycle to work scheme but failed, I shall try again with childcare vouchers


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## Cyclist33 (12 Oct 2012)

I assume you get child tax credit? Does your missus work 16+ hours?


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## fossyant (12 Oct 2012)

The child are vouchers are pretty common and easy for a company to administer. Go for it as you can get them being employed.


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## Gretzky's Office (15 Oct 2012)

If your wife runs a limited company and pays herself through PAYE, she can set them up as the ltd company is the employer and she is the employee.


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## Andrew_Culture (15 Oct 2012)

Alas she's a sole-trader. A fella here at work who has four daughters (hence his 'JLS' lunchbox I guess) said his wife just enrolled their first born at a nursery and the nursery sorted out the details.

Our office admin here has started looking into this for me and has pointed me at this http://ccincalculator.hmrc.gov.uk/CCIN0.aspx


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## Andrew_Culture (15 Oct 2012)

Hmm, fallen at the first hurdle on the HMRC calculator - the question asked how much we currently spend a month on childcare, the answer being nothing because we don't currently send the wee-one to childcare!

How much is a 'normal' amount to pay for a day of childcare?


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## ianrauk (15 Oct 2012)

Andrew_Culture said:


> How much is a 'normal' amount to pay for a day of childcare?


 
We pay £5.50 an hour for a 9 hour day.
And the Child Minder is worth every penny.


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## Andrew_Culture (15 Oct 2012)

ianrauk said:


> We pay £5.50 an hour for a 9 hour day.
> And the Child Minder is worth every penny.


 
Cheers! My mum was a child minder so I don't know why that route hadn't yet occurred to me!


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## trampyjoe (15 Oct 2012)

We pay Student finance pays our nursery £85 a week for two days 8am till 5:30pm.


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## ohnovino (15 Oct 2012)

Andrew_Culture said:


> How much is a 'normal' amount to pay for a day of childcare?


 
Varies massively depending on location. The charity I work for runs a nursery in a very deprived part of Liverpool that charges £36.50 for a full day (10.5 hours) but I've heard of posher places charging twice that price.


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## Andrew_Culture (15 Oct 2012)

trampyjoe said:


> We pay Student finance pays our nursery £85 a week for two days 8am till 5:30pm.


 
Sounds reasonable, no point in getting the lass used to anything high flying in this family


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## Arjimlad (15 Oct 2012)

My daughter has two six-hour days per week at a childminder, and I get £243 per month in childcare vouchers which covers it fine.


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## Arjimlad (15 Oct 2012)

I take it you have also looked at working families tax credit ?


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## Andrew_Culture (15 Oct 2012)

Arjimlad said:


> I take it you have also looked at working families tax credit ?


 
I wish I knew, tax got very confusing when I stopped being self employed.


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## Arjimlad (15 Oct 2012)

Your wife's accountant should be able to help/advise. Plenty of self-employed folks qualify for WFTC.


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## Andrew_Culture (15 Oct 2012)

Arjimlad said:


> Your wife's accountant should be able to help/advise. Plenty of self-employed folks qualify for WFTC.


 
Thanks, unfortunately she's just dropped her accountant because she doesn't earn anywhere near enough to have to pay tax!


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## Sandra6 (21 Oct 2012)

It may be in your favour that your wife earns below the tax threshold when it comes to tax credits - do you claim those already? 
There is a calculator at http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx which is fairly reliable. 
Childcare costs vary wildly, depending where you live.
Round here it's around £4 an hour for pre-school care. 
Sometimes with the tax credits they say you're not entitled to the childcare portion, but they do allow for your childcare expense when they work out your entitlement to child tax credits. I currently get a little bit more than if I wasn't paying for after school club for two of mine even though according to my award I don't get anything towards their childcare.


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## Andrew_Culture (21 Oct 2012)

Sandra6 said:


> It may be in your favour that your wife earns below the tax threshold when it comes to tax credits - do you claim those already?
> There is a calculator at http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx which is fairly reliable.
> Childcare costs vary wildly, depending where you live.
> Round here it's around £4 an hour for pre-school care.
> Sometimes with the tax credits they say you're not entitled to the childcare portion, but they do allow for your childcare expense when they work out your entitlement to child tax credits. I currently get a little bit more than if I wasn't paying for after school club for two of mine even though according to my award I don't get anything towards their childcare.



Thanks, I hope I'm not the only person flummoxed by benefits!


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## paddy01 (21 Oct 2012)

Basically it's a toss up (depending on personal circumstances) whether you're better off with tax credits or using the childcare voucher scheme. Earnings, hours worked per week, childcare costs, number of kids etc.

I work full time, wife works 4 days a week plus every other half Saturday. Due to earnings there's no tax credits for us so we both make full use of the childcare voucher scheme (currently about £200 per month each deducted before tax/NI IIRC. As basic rate tax payers this saves us around £900 a year. My place already had arrangements in place (with Care4), other halfs did not. They sub out their payroll who simply deduct the necessary from her gross wages and send the nursery that the boy goes to a cheque each month.

We pay just under £600 per month for 3 days a week for our 11 month old, which is 8am to 5.30pm, includes all meals etc. We supply only nappies and 2 formula bottles per day, all meals etc. are included.. Wife takes 1 day and his maternal grand parents another.

It does get cheaper as they get older due to them needing fewer carers per number of sprogs as they get older. When they get to 3, the government (currently) kicks in 15 hours a week usually towards a pre-school placement.

Happy to continue by PM if you've got any questions etc.


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## Andrew_Culture (21 Oct 2012)

paddy01 said:


> Basically it's a toss up (depending on personal circumstances) whether you're better off with tax credits or using the childcare voucher scheme. Earnings, hours worked per week, childcare costs, number of kids etc.
> 
> I work full time, wife works 4 days a week plus every other half Saturday. Due to earnings there's no tax credits for us so we both make full use of the childcare voucher scheme (currently about £200 per month each deducted before tax/NI IIRC. As basic rate tax payers this saves us around £900 a year. My place already had arrangements in place (with Care4), other halfs did not. They sub out their payroll who simply deduct the necessary from her gross wages and send the nursery that the boy goes to a cheque each month.
> 
> ...



Thanks you for this. I've talked this over with my wife and because the maximum you're allowed to earn as a family to qualify for child tax credits has been halved from £50k to £25k we now don't qualify.

It's looking very much like if we want childcare so my wife can get some gardening hours in for her clients I'll have to start delivering pizzas. Yum.


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## Sandra6 (22 Oct 2012)

I thought the cut off was £40K?? 
Mr6 and I earn more than £25k between us and we qualify.


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## Andrew_Culture (22 Oct 2012)

Sandra6 said:


> I thought the cut off was £40K??
> Mr6 and I earn more than £25k between us and we qualify.


 
We'll look into it again, I'm remembering (from my time on the dole) that claiming benefits is as much work as having an extra job!


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## Longshot (22 Oct 2012)

Andrew_Culture said:


> We'll look into it again, I'm remembering (from my time on the dole) that claiming benefits is as much work as having an extra job!


 
I looked at it a couple of years ago as I read that you can have household income up to £60,000 and qualify. Needless to say we didn't...


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