An employee can access the salary sacrifice scheme for as long as they need to, but they need to be aware of the implications of belonging to the scheme. Under a salary sacrifice scheme, an employee’s contract is amended to make it clear that the parent is entitled to a lower taxable salary in return for the equivalent amount being paid in childcare vouchers. The employee may not retain the right to return to the previous level of salary within the terms of their contract, so ideally the change would be for a specific period of time, e.g. one year or until the child reaches a certain age, which is written into the contract and during that time the employee cannot return to their previous salary.
