Child care vouchers for boarding element of fees

[sleep123]

We have put off auditioning for any vocational schools over the years primarily (as with most people on this forum!) due to finances should we have been offered a place! We are in the fortunate position to be employed , earning decent salaries which would therefore limit the funding available through mds if it were offered but sadly not fortunate enough to have clear funds available once mortgage and essentials are paid to cover vocational dance fees. Hence DD has the annual depression of accepting the situation in the autumn when the auditions start, getting over it and then the mixed emotions of yet more friends being offered places in the summer- wants to be so happy for them but tinged with sadness as she wants to go as well! In one last ditch attempt I thought it may be worth exploring the finances once and for all so help please!

 

Do any of the main dance schools accept child are vouchers towards the boarding element of the fees? Someone had mentioned some general boarding schools do.

 

Do any schools offer their own scholarships which are not means tested?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[ZooZoo]

I don't see WHY any of them would not accept childcare vouchers for the boarding element.  I know WL do not, but I do not understand the reason that they don't.  Do any of the others?  I would be very interested to know.  The interaction between MDS and boarding element would be a tricky calculation, but not impossible...  It would take off a few thousand a year off the fees, I would have thought.  Only up to age 16 though I believe.

 

Clarification on childcare vouchers for military families has been requested from the MOD and this is the published response.

 

 

Childcare Voucher Scheme

Clarification from HMRC on the use of Childcare Vouchers for boarding school fees has been requested and received by the MOD.

It has been confirmed that private tuition fees come within the definition of qualifying childcare, provided that all the other qualifying conditions for employer provided childcare are met.

Boarding school fees qualify to the extent that these relate to care and to supervised activities, including private tuition, which are provided outside the compulsory education. It is therefore important that the costs for these are identified separately from the costs charged for the compulsory education.

If there is no separate identification of these elements, then the total cost would be regarded as being for the compulsory education, and vouchers provided for such costs would be chargeable to tax and NIC.

Therefore, childcare vouchers CAN be used for the boarding element of school fees, and this must be made clear on school bills and invoices.

Changes have also been made to the scheme that make it possible to join and leave at any time, and which enable parents to start claiming vouchers before they have their childcare in place. For further information on the scheme visit www.modchildcare.co.uk.  

Childcare voucher scheme tax thresholds for claiming tax free entitlement for childcare changed on the 6th April this year.

• those on the Basic rate of tax will have seen no change
• those on Additional or Higher tax rate banding are now entitled to a lesser amount.

The process for evaluating entitlement also changed as it now includes taxable allowances and bonuses. This process became subject to financial scrutiny by the MOD and has taken around five months. The scheme, administered by Sodexo, should now be available for applicants and all of those who applied on or post 6th April should also have had their applications processed. 

We recognise that the childcare voucher scheme is very important to a large number of  families and if you are encountering problems with securing childcare vouchers then please let us know so that we can highlight this issue by emailing ec@aff.org.uk.  

[ZooZoo]

And eg see here - a school advertising how much you can save on boarding using childcare vouchers!

 

http://www.qe.org/armed-forces/

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Friends who work in childcare tell me how costly & admin heavy the childcare vouchers are to administrate so it's not surprising that many schools choose not to participate in the scheme.

 

A friend who runs a drama holiday club tried to register but gave up in the end.

 

I know that Hammond sometimes offer bursaries to those not offered an MDS & that some families find the bursary works out better for them but it's quite difficult to obtain specific information as those on bursaries are asked not to discuss them or risk losing it.

[Nana Lily]

Elmhurst did accept CCV a few years ago, but only for full fee paying children. I don't know if they do still.  Apparently MDS covers firstly the cost of boarding, then the other elements of the fees meaning that CCV can not be used if you are on an MDS scholarship.There is an old thread on this somewhere I think on the old forum platform. The amount you can save using CCV's is a drop in the ocean versus full fees, though as they say "every little helps"

 

NL