More than eight in ten (82%) respondents will continue to provide childcare vouchers after the introduction of the government’s tax-free childcare scheme in autumn 2015, according to research by Jelf Employee Benefits.
Its research, which surveyed more than 200 employers, found that just 3% will not continue to offer childcare vouchers post-autumn 2015, while 15% are not sure if they will do so.
Steve Herbert, head of benefits strategy at Jelf Employee Benefits, said: “As more detail has become known regarding the government’s proposals for tax-free childcare, it has become increasingly apparent that some employees will be better off retaining their membership under an existing employer-supported childcare voucher scheme.
“So it’s encouraging that so many employers are now actively considering retaining such arrangements to help these employees access this vital government support towards the rising cost of childcare.
“Although the final outline for tax-free childcare is significantly more generous and wider reaching than originally proposed, it still leaves many families worse off or unable to access this vital support.
“It seems unlikely that any more improvements will be made to the tax-free childcare proposals before introduction next year, so I would therefore urge employers to retain their schemes for the moment, and perhaps even promote the benefits of joining while it is still possible to do so.”
I personally disagree as scheme will be closed to new members and over 90% will be better under new scheme. We are already seeing a raft of redundancies within the industry amongst those who rely on childcare vouchers as their core business.
The market will contract with only 1 or 2 main providers.