Being paid in vouchers

[mumofone]

When you are paid with vouchers they usually take s few days to arrive in your actual bank account so even though you can see them in the voucher system you're using do you insist that they are paid in advance so the funds are cleared and in your bank account before your care for your mindee starts that month?
A customer paid me in vouchers and I can see the have done so but funds have only just arrived in my account today for care that started on Tuesday this week. Not sure if this is acceptable going forwards and how to word if and whether if I do if it's a bit pety?! Opinions welcomed! :-)

[Lal]

For me it depends on the family. For a new family and voucher company I would insist on funds being cleared in my bank account before care commences. Families (and voucher companies) who I know always pay I am happy to have the notification email that payment has been made via the voucher company.
For one family, who I did short notice emergency cover for, I held a cash deposit to cover the full cost until we were able to set up voucher payment and it had cleared.

It is up to you. If you want to stipulate it is cleared then it is not unreasonable (or petty) to do so. :-)

[shortstuff]

For me I am quite relaxed about receiving my payments via voucher. As long as when I log in to the voucher ac i can see it there i am happy.

I would however not be happy if my 1st payment was late and would have expected the parents to have double checked it was ok with me first. That said if it was the parents 1st time using vouchers they would probably not be aware of a delay in the payment reaching you, so would again cut them slack then also.

[AliceK]

I insist on being paid by "cleared" funds by the last working day of the month for the next month. On my invoices I write the date on which the parent needs to make the transfer in order for it to hit my bank account on time.

I do have a couple of parents who don't get paid until the last working day of the month so I ask them to make sure they pay their vouchers though on that date and then I work out 3 working days after and put that as their voucher payment date. If they have remainder £ then I insist that is made by BACS on the day they get paid, I don't let that part be late.

xxx

[bunyip]

Tbh, from a legal point of view, it almost certainly would be considered "unreasonable" to demand cleared funds in your bank account by a certain date. If push came to shove, a court would almost certainly consider it unreasonable.

That's because the client has absolutely no control over how long the CM's bank takes to clear the funds, whether it's CVs, cheques, whatever. Also, the CV company is legally acting as the CM's "agent" in terms of transferring funds from the CM's CV account into the CM's bank account. Again, this is totally outside the client's control.

It's not unlike when you pay at the checkout with a plastic card and walk away with your groceries. You'll have eaten those doughnuts and drunk that bottle of wine well before the money hits the shop's bank account, but that doesn't mean you haven't paid them: you haven't been handling stolen goods all that time.

If you accept CVs then you accept the invoice is paid once the CVs are in your CV account, not your bank account. The only proviso is that you can pursue the client for non-payment if the money completely fails to arrive (eg. if the CV company went bust and you never got the money) and then everything would have to work backwards, ultimately leaving the client's employer trying to get their money back from the official receiver, but that's a very rare chance.

The simplest (and only legally "reasonable") thing would be to put in the contract that accounts being settled by CVs must be paid at an earlier date in the month. eg. Client can pay by cash, BACS, etc. by the 30th of the month, but payments by CVs, cheques, etc. must be paid by the 20th, say.

[Lal]

I hadn't thought of it like that. Thinking about it I wouldn't of paid my builder before he built my porch (we'd bought the materials). I guess there have been a number of threads where the advice (from numerous people) is to ensure you have cleared funds to avoid parents not paying, so that becomes the general consensus on how to do things.

[Kirstylob]

Some voucher companies seem to take longer than others for payment to show in my account but as I only accept payment in advance I don't mind too much if payment is cleared a few days into the month, I'm still being paid for 3 weeks work that I haven't yet done. Any cash transfer I do expect to be there and cleared.

[mumofone]

Some voucher companies seem to take longer than others for payment to show in my account but as I only accept payment in advance I don't mind too much if payment is cleared a few days into the month, I'm still being paid for 3 weeks work that I haven't yet done. Any cash transfer I do expect to be there and cleared.

You make a good point there kirstylob :-)

[Mouse]

I ask for payment by the 1st of each month and I'm happy as long as parents have arranged the transfer by then. I don't mind it coming into my account a few days late. Over Christmas one mum authorised a transfer on 22nd December and I eventually got the money about the 7th January - not her fault at all, so I wouldn't have penalised her.

[bunyip]

Remeber that with some CV companies you have to set it to search for payments every day, otherwise you can wait up to a month for them to transfer the funds to your bank.

[Rubybubbles]

I ask for payment by the 1st of each month and I'm happy as long as parents have arranged the transfer by then. I don't mind it coming into my account a few days late. Over Christmas one mum authorised a transfer on 22nd December and I eventually got the money about the 7th January - not her fault at all, so I wouldn't have penalised her.


This! As long as it has been actioned that's fine with me. X