Childcare vouchers are a Government initiative to help working parents to pay for their childcare, as childcare vouchers are exempt from tax and NI contributions. As such, this can mean savings of up to £933 per year on registered childcare for each parent for their kids up to 15. Employers can also save up to £402 per employee, per year in NI. According to research published by the liberal think-tank CentreForum British childcare is ‘among the most expensive in the world’ and is increasingly ‘beyond the reach’ of middle-class families.
The latest enhancements to Sodexo’s childcare voucher service came about after extensive independent research, which identified the needs of both UK businesses and working parents. Key findings of the research revealed; the need among HR departments for proactive and reliable HMRC compliance advice, a 100% online, easy to use and visually attractive portal with superior customer support and account management.
The 2011 CIPD HR Outlook* highlighted that “9 in 10 HR professionals who have responsibility for running a team said skills/capability gaps existed within their HR function”. Sodexo’s upgraded portal and superior service help address this concern and will arm a busy or under-resourced HR department, or a non-HR specialist with automated processes, standardised best practices, improved efficiency and HMRC expertise.
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Sodexo Motivation Solutions’ managing director, Iain McMath said:
“Although our clients believe our childcare vouchers online portal is already very good we worked hard to make it even better. We are continually looking to provide a service that really supports them do their job on a day to day basis and add extra value to working parents. Our upgraded portal will reduce administrative time dramatically by automating routine tasks such as voucher ordering and acceptance. Of course, having a scheme in place is just the beginning. Our business consultants’ team are very successful in growing schemes either by supporting our clients or educating directly their employees or even better, by doing both. Our clients will be able from now on to track their scheme health online. After 10 years of experience with clients of all sizes and industries, we have learnt what really works and what doesn’t.“
Parents who use the new portal to order and manage their childcare vouchers will benefit too, thanks to features like direct parent sign up and the launch of a new online ‘family account’ so that both parents can manage their vouchers in one place. Sodexo also help parents’ money go the extra mile with targeted offers on its portal. One of the main day to day concern of parents is also maintaining a good relationship with their childcare provider. 99.9% of our childcare providers are paid on time. We have also made additional improvements for an even simpler redemption process and easier voucher tracking.
