Childcare voucher providers: cost to employers 10
Childcare voucher schemes - the government's scheme where you sacrifice some of your salary in exchange for an equal amount of childcare vouchers - make sense for employers and employees. Employees don't have to pay tax or NI on the vouchers. And employers don't have to pay employers' NI. So savings all round.
Childcare voucher schemes: employers' costs
Employers will have to pay a company to administer the scheme (but this cost is less than the NI saving). Here's a list of the companies and how much they charge (remember, you'll save more than this in NI).
Accor, Busybees, Sodexho etc childcare vouchers: administration costs
For some reason companies are reluctant to put these figures on their websites. All figures are for a one-person childcare voucher scheme.
- Kiddivouchers - 2.5%
- Voucher solutions - 4%
- Early years vouchers -From 5%
- Kids Unlimited - 5%
- Gemelli - 5%
- Sodexho / childcarechoice.co.uk - 6%
- Accor Services Childcare Vouchers - 7%
- Vouchers4Kids - 7%
- Employersforchildcare- Â 7%
- Faircare - 9%
- Busy Bees - still waiting for call back
So there you have it. The cost of running a childcare voucher scheme is between 2.5% and 9%. I can't quite see why you would look beyond Kiddivouchers or Voucher solutions myself.
Hi Malcolm,
Maybe it's also a good idea to cover other factors, such as the provision of vouchers online, easy management of scheme, promotional help, telephone and online suppprt, along with a great rate of course.
You missed one too: Early Years Childcare Vouchers, http://www.childcare-vouchers.net/ - these guys are 5%.
Thanks for the post
“Employers will have to pay a company to administer the scheme.†Not so! It’s very simple for an employer to run its scheme itself, using templates available on the market at a fraction of the cost charged by voucher providers.
You missed out these guys http://www.pesconsulting.co.uk/services/childcare.htm - these guys are 3.75% and provide online and paper vouchers
http://www.pesconsulting.co.uk
Hi,
You missed one that does have the costs on its website CLARICARE Childcare Vouchers, the only one to be transparent. With costs starting at 2.5% check it out.. http://www.claricare.co.uk or http://www.child-care-vouchers.com
Thank you Malcolm. You provided exactly what I was looking for - the comparable running costs of the schemes - which nobody seemed to want to provide on their websites! And at first glance Kiddivouchers looks ideal; I doubt I would have found them without your site. Thanks again.
I like your article, but there is also the "Employer Direct Payment Scheme". Does not involve any vouchers but provides the same tax/NI savings under a different section of legislation.
The scheme costs £299 with us and there are no further costs. We also arrange for HMRC compliance approval, often not provided by voucher companies. Also improves an organisations cash flow as they do not have to pay in advance for vouchers.
A very popular alternative, being used by large Public Bodies like City and County Councils, who wish to acheive maximum savings and in several cases has replaced poor performing voucher solutions.
Thanks.
Hi,
You missed this company also. They provide a great online system for a very competitive commission fee of between 2% and 3.75% depending on the size of the organisation.
http://www.applechildcarevouchers.co.uk
Very simple to register, only take about 5 minutes, check them out!
Hi Malcolm, excellent article.
In response to Anthony Rentoul, I would like to point out that experience does count for a lot in these sorts of schemes. Running one yourself is certainly an option, but it doesn't necessarily mean you will save money. Of course you won't have to pay the admin fee, but you will still have to administer the scheme, which does have a labour cost attached to it.
I think that these childcare voucher providers do provide value. Personally I was with one of the big ones before, but I found them impossible to deal with, often they did not answer the phone and left me chasing them. I notified my company and having had other complaints they changed their provider. Now we're with Childcare Voucher Solutions (http://www.childcarevouchersolutions.co.uk) and they guarantee to answer the phone within 3 rings and are very helpful.
Overall I would say that I am very impressed by them, and I find it a lot less stressful (kids are stress enough without extras!).
Hope this helps someone,
Eoin