Busy Bee Childcare vouchers? Anyone use them? Thoughts?

So, my husband can receive, from his workplace in lieu of his full salary, Busy Bee Childcare vouchers in order to help pay for private nursery. Anyone use them? Any advice or comments about these vouchers?

Since we would not be sending the child to nursery until the fall, is it possible to start collecting the vouchers now and then use the collection en masse when the child started in October? There seems to be a limit in how much you collect per year... but when paying a nursery school with the vouchers, is there a limit on how much you can give them per week?

I've been taking tours of nursery schools. And the administrators giving the tours did not seem to know much. So, I thought I'd give it a shot and ask here.

Many thanks,
Rutabega

One thing to consider is when you say nursery, do you mean the child will be 3 or older before 1 september? If so, they would be government funded and thus vouchers would be of less (if any) use.

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/resources-and-practice/nurseryfaq/

I use them for my 18-month-old's private nursery. The benefit is that the money is taken out of the salary before tax. So you're still paying the full nursery fees, but paying less tax on the salary. At least that's my understanding of it. I don't know if you can save them up for later use because the money goes directly from salary to the nursery. My nursery doesn't have a limit, and in fact the voucher amount doesn't cover my son's fees in full, so I have to make up the difference.
If you go on the Busy Bees website it should explain everything.
Hope that helps.
Lee

It would be before the age of three. Yes. It seemed that there were two ways to receive the vouchers--one could still collect the paper coupons and then hand them over. And then there's the automatic computerized version.

But, realistically, the computerized version is what the company is pushing for... and it probably keeps people, like myself, from trying to hoard the paper ones!  Oh well. It was a thought--largely because the private, pre-age 3 nursery I am enamored of requires a month prepayment to retain the spot. So, it does not look I can get the vouchers in advance to really do that. But, thereafter I can use them.

And, you're right, SlicesMissus, it does not cover the whole fee. But, it looks like it could help a lot! I just wish the nursery manager understood them so she could walk me through it! Oh well! Thanks!

I think your child has to be attending a nursery before you can start to claim them. My employer doesn't use busy bees, but we had to provide proof that he was attending.

I think you have already figured this out but the way it works with my husbands employer you had to designate the place you are going to use and you have to be enrolled so you would not be able to save them up for later.   

While the pre-tax nature does save a few dollars IMO it is not the thing to worry about right away.  My husband was allowed to have open enrollment so you can always add it later once you are settled and ready.  If you miss a month or term on pre-tax it is not the biggest loss.

Also know that for my husband's work we had to designate that where ever we were going to use the Buzy Bee funds we would stay there a min. of 6 months.  I think that was his employers rule not the fund.  But if you think you might need to change within that 6 months you should be careful.