Anyone looking for the highest levels of nursery benefits needs to take advantage of the workplace nursery scheme.
The workplace nursery scheme saves parents huge sums of money – far in excess of the now obsolete Childcare Vouchers – but there are other benefits too with this type of nursery provision.
Administration is easy, and that’s for parents, their employer and also the nursery itself, as we will explain in greater detail lower down.
With a workplace nursery scheme there can also be guaranteed places, parents knowing that they have high quality nursery provision near to their place of work.
Another benefit is that the nursery receives extra funding, this through National insurance contributions from the employer, parents then get a say as to how this extra money is spent. It might be used to help make any outdoor space a truly wonderful setting, or for educational short trips out, or for resources such as books, toys and learning materials.
Parents get nursery provision with many benefits, they save money, they get guaranteed places, the hassle of administration is removed and the nursery gets that extra funding, thus making it stand out among local providers.
At Enjoy Benefits, we are experts in setting up workplace nursery schemes, taking care of all the administration. Employers find it is cost neutral, employees and the nursery gain substantially.
If you would like to find out more, please call us on 0800 088 7315 or via our contact page.
Nursery Benefits for Parents
The key advantage of the workplace nursery scheme is undeniably for parents.
Nursery costs are a huge expense, the average cost is £850 per month across the UK and this rises to above £1,100 in London. Parents with two children of nursery age are likely to be paying close to £2,000 a month – or simply choosing to have one parent at home as the nursery cost largely negates any income earned.
With a workplace nursery scheme, the savings are huge, this because it is a benefit that comes out at source, and so the parent saves on tax and National Insurance.
To give a few examples, a basic rate tax payer paying £850 per month in nursery fees would save £2,500 a year, if their nursery fees were £1,100 this saving would jump to more than £3,200.
If the parent is a high rate tax payer, the savings are £3,603 (against £850 monthly fees) and £4,700 (against £1,100 monthly fees). For an additional rate tax payer, the savings would jump again by at least £500.
To use a more extreme example, a parent on higher rate tax and with two children in nursery and so paying £2,200 in fees would save £9,400 a year.
We have a savings calculator so any parent can easily work out how much they could save.
As well as the savings, parents also have the benefit of knowing their child has childcare available and can even look to work extra days thanks to the savings available. With the money coming out automatically there is no administration, no bills to worry about.
The final benefit comes in the knowledge that by being part of a workplace nursery scheme, the nursery your child attends gets extra funding, better still parents help choose how this extra funding is spent.
Nursery Benefits For The Employer
For the nursery, there is the benefit of having guaranteed spaces filled and also payments coming through automatically at the start of the month.
The extra funding also means the chance to further improve the nursery and so make it more appealing to other parents and ensuring it remains at or around full capacity.
The nursery ends up better funded and in high demand.
How to achieve nursery benefits
The scheme is easy to set up and was hugely popular before Childcare Vouchers came into being. The arrival of Childcare Vouchers led many employers to feel they didn’t need to get involved in childcare, and yet when set up through a third party such as Enjoy Benefits, a workplace nursery scheme has no ongoing administration and is financially beneficial to all.
There are a few things that need to be in place for HMRC to be happy that the set-up is a proper link-up and not just a paper exercise, these include annual meetings between the nursery, employer and parent representatives. This annual face-to-face meeting need only be an hour long and given it saves everyone thousands of pounds it is likely to be among the most profitable hours of the year.
You can see further details of what is required to set the scheme up on our dedicated page. As with all workplace benefits, it can run in the background, it is not something anyone has to give regular thought to.
About Enjoy Benefits
At Enjoy Benefits we are experts in setting up and then managing a whole suite of workplace benefits, these ranging from workplace nursery schemes to cycle to work, gym membership Employee Assistance Programmes and much more besides.
Please get in touch with us by calling 0800 781 1652 or via our contact page.
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Queries are dealt with within 1 working day.
Contact Form
talk to our team
0800 088 7315
