Childcare vouchers have proven to be one of our most popular employee benefits; with thousands of parents buying vouchers with us every month!
Childcare vouchers work through a salary sacrifice arrangement. Employees swap part of their pay for a childcare voucher to spend with their chosen childcare provider out of their pre-tax salary.
Employees can purchase up to £2,916 worth of childcare vouchers this way and set up regular payments so it happens automatically every month. This means they lose less of their wages to tax and National Insurance and can save up to 32% on their annual childcare costs (for a basic-rate taxpayer).
And the good news doesn’t stop there! For businesses who have already joined the scheme, they will see National Insurance savings of up to 13.8% thanks to reduced taxable salaries.
Whilst the scheme has proven immensely popular, it is now closed to new applicants.
The UK Government has introduced a new tax-free childcare scheme in October 2018 which replaces childcare vouchers. Instead, the new scheme means families with children can get 20% of their childcare fees paid for by the Government.
To learn more about the Government’s Tax-Free Childcare, visit their dedicated web page here.
Customers who joined before the October 2018 deadline can still offer childcare vouchers to their employees and this is a service we’re proud to continue to provide to our clients.
If we are currently providing childcare vouchers to you or your employees and you have a question about the scheme, please contact our customer care team at customercare.engage.uk@sodexo.com
Your employees save, and you save too. It's as simple as that! Even better, the money saved by childcare vouchers provides a substantial National Insurance saving for you, the employer. And that's not all – we also give your employees access to even more family-focused savings from our partners through the childcare vouchers portal.
We handle the back-end, leaving you to focus on strategy, rather than day-to-day admin. Registration is simple for employees, and it’s quick and easy to set up a regular or ad hoc payment to their childcare provider. We can set up automatic ordering and customisable notifications, and handle any queries your employees might have. Full service – everyone's happy.
We give you the tools you need to see exactly what impact your childcare voucher programme is having. You'll have access to reporting on the savings you've made, as well as the take-up among your employees (how many people are actually using it). Full order histories, sales invoices – whatever you need, it's in there.
We'll work with you to get the message out to your employees. It could be planning a presentation, a poster or email campaign, running a roadshow – whatever it takes to get people involved, our in-house design team will build it. We also provide a range of tools and calculators to help your employees work out how much they can save.
