Council to Introduce Child Care Voucher Scheme

The Highland Council is to introduce a salary sacrifice scheme in the New Year to enable eligible employees to obtain childcare vouchers through a Government tax exemption scheme.

The major benefit of the Child Care Voucher Scheme is that employees can access significant savings via relief on tax and National Insurance contributions while the Council benefits through paying reduced employers’ National Insurance contributions.

Working parents employed by the Council can request up to £55 per week, or £243 per month, in non-taxable and NIC-exempt vouchers.  This can result in savings of up to £916 per year for standard rate tax payers and £1,195 per year for higher rate tax payers. Both partners with parental responsibility can participate in the scheme for the same qualifying child, potentially doubling the saving per family.

Those eligible need to made a commitment for a minimum period of one year.

Vouchers can be used to pay for many forms of registered child care, including registered childminders, nurseries, play schemes, out of hours clubs, before and after school clubs, holiday clubs and summer camps.

Councillor John Matheson, Chairman of the Resources Committee, said: “Childcare responsibilities are one of the most frequently cited reasons for poor employee retention, with 8% of employees leaving the workforce in order to have or look after children. So the Child Care Voucher Scheme is a most worthwhile scheme is helping us recruit and retain staff.”

The Council has already implemented a salary sacrifice scheme for home computers and bicycles, both of which h have proved very popular with staff.  The home computer scheme had 1,504 participating leading to £120,900 savings over three years. The Cycle to Work Scheme had 508 participants leading to £34,853 savings over 18 months.