Workplace Nursery Benefit

[tootingdad1]

Hi all!

Has anyone here used the workplace nursery benefit (where your employer partners with a nursery through whichever scheme provider and the nursery fees come out of gross salary)? I cannot seem to find any mention of it on any GOV website and frankly it seems too good to be true! The savings over paying directly will be something like >£5k per year for the nurseries we are looking at so obviously would love to take advantage as my employer offers it, but just wondered if there were any strings attached or if it wasn't as brilliant as it sounds?

If anyone has used the scheme before it would be great to hear as i cannot see anything online really!

Thanks in advance!

Hi - LA Early Years and Childcare Officer so I can give some advice about different ways to pay for childcare. This link gives information about the scheme from an employer's view www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-childcare
Here's a link to salary sacrifice benfits for an employee. www.gov.uk/guidance/salary-sacrifice-and-the-effects-on-paye

www.gov.uk/guidance/employer-supported-childcare-480-appendix-11#employer-provided-nursery-or-playscheme

Friend uses this one for her nursery

www.enjoybenefits.co.uk/staff-benefits-savings/workplace-nursery-provision/amp

You may also want to look into Tax Free Childcare www.gov.uk/get-tax-free-childcare

Yes @imnottoofussed that is the one that is being offered my my employer. Good to hear that someone else is using it! I hadn't heard of it and it just seems quite a bit more generous than any of the other schemes on offer so thought there may be some hurdles! Do you know if your friend found the process easy and if they were able to get the nursery that they wanted on it?

Yes I believe the nursery set up easily and it all goes well.

Thanks @imnottoofussed thats great to hear

I'm using one, my employer set it up. I save approx 25% on the nursey fees (compared to 20% with tax free child care). No need to worry about paying it each month etc.

Disadvantages - check the small print. As it is salary sacrifice, it will lower your salary and therefore may lower your pension (depends on how you pension is taken - mine is taken before tax and NI, so not affected). Also at my employer it runs August to August, so I have to commit to a full year each time. It may also decrease you maternity leave pay in the future, as your salary is lower. I think there may be a few similar issue e.g. if you have death in service benefit as well

Sorry, ignore that - I save approx 32% of the fee, not 25%!

Thanks @CupcakesK! Great to hear directly from someone who uses it! Have already run the numbers and workplace nursery savings will far exceed that of tax free childcare (especially as we will be looking for full time nursery at SW London prices!) which is why i was surprised it wasn't more commonplace!

Looks like the only real downside is having to commit to a full year each time which i think we can deal with!

Can you use child care government free tax scheme along side it? I think I read somewhere you could?

I work for the NHS how would this affect my salary and pension etc? As I am planning to go part time when DS starts nursery

I use an NHS trust nursery and salary sacrifice £490 a month. I save around 33%. My pension contributions don't seem to have been hugely affected either. Ive never seen my "full" wage since going back to work after maternity leave so I don't even notice it going out.

Hi all, I've just found this thread and wondered if the workplace nursery benefit is still running in your companies? My company are considering joining so would be good to know if it actually works and you find it helpful. Thanks so much

@tootingdad1 have you found that the scheme has worked for you so far?

I use this. The nursery is a specific branch of a specific national chain provider housed on the workplace grounds. Comes out of my gross salary with huge tax relief.

Thanks so much @PayPennies . So it can't just be any nursery? It seems a bit complicated.

In my workplace it absolutely cannot be any nursery except this particular one.

not sure how your workplace plays it but every workplace nursery I’ve heard of is similar to mine - ie one particular provider they have a contractual arrangement with.

It definitely can be any nursery it doesn't have to be one specific nursery or in the company premises.

If you ring the company I linked to earlier in the thread I'm sure they will explain all about it, friend is still using them.

Surely this depends on the specific workplace and the specific scheme. In my workplace - a leading university in the SE - it’s a specific nursery (local branch of national chain) - located on our university campus that is the nursery that this scheme exists for.

likewise - across the road - is the huge NHS hospital who have the exact same scheme with local branch of another national chain, and that one only.

clearly OP should ask her own workplace whether their salary sacrifice scheme can be used for absolutely any nursery.

Yes but they can join a third party scheme like the one I linked who will set it up for any nursery the parent is using. So yes it can be one nursery but nothing stopping the employer working with multiple other nurseries by going through a third party scheme.

Op can ask her employer to set up with the benefit supplier who will do the scheme with her nursery. Then employer doesn't have to do anything particularly taxing or set up their own nurseries/links to nurseries

My workplace does employer-provided nursery with salary sacrifice. Can I still get tax free childcare as well (£500 every 3 months)? The nursery seems to think so. According to the gov website: www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-childcare/whats-exempt it looks like they don't have to report anything, suggesting that I would be able to apply for the credits.

Does anyone know?

This looks promising!
revenuebenefits.org.uk/tax-free-childcare/guidance/and-other-childcare-support/employer-supported-childcare/#:~:text=Workplace%20nurseries%20are%20not%20affected,contracted%20childcare%20from%20their%20employer.

Hi, I’m also considering childcare payment options atm. My husbands firm has the workplace nursery benefit (third party partnership with any nursery approach - they take a 12% commission which is why you save only 33% tax even if you are a higher tax payer).

If we use that the third party pays the nursery directly. Therefore, looking at the governments tax free childcare scheme/website I don’t think we could use this and ‘double count’ tax savings as I believe this scheme makes you pay money into an account and then pay the nursery directly from that account. It’s not like issuing a nursery bill and the government paying you a 20% discount.

I just wanted to double check I’m understanding this correctly, if anyone has more intel?