These vouchers are claimed through your employer. If you are interested, you should contact your human resources department to find out whether it has a voucher scheme and what is on offer. If your employer does offer childcare vouchers, you should be able to buy these whether you are a full or part-time employee. Contractors and freelancers can claim childcare vouchers through a Limited Company. Companies may offer their own scheme, or they may offer vouchers through a childcare voucher provider such as Kiddivouchers, Employersforchildcare, Edenred or Computershare Voucher Services.
Most employers that offer childcare vouchers do this through ‘salary sacrifice’. This means that your salary will be decreased by the amount that you would like to give up to claim in vouchers.
This will be deducted before tax and national insurance, and currently you can claim up to £55 a week, or £243 a month in vouchers for basic-rate tax payers.