Vouchers for carers
March 19, 2009
As I’ve written about in the past, there is a government scheme called childcare vouchers through which a parent can save money on their childcare costs by purchasing vouchers through their gross salary payment which can then be redeemed for childcare from their registered nursery, childminder, after-school club etc. The employee saves money on this because the taxable part of their salary payment becomes less and they therefore pay less tax and National Insurance. This scheme saves parents across the country a fortune each month and is a great thing for industry as it helps more people to afford to work when they have childcare needs, keeping more skilled and experienced people in the workforce and labour market.
Now, a group of high-profile employers has called to replicate this scheme for people who have caring responsibilities. Companies involved in the group, which is called ‘Employers for Carers’ include BT, John Lewis, IBM and HSBC. The group wants to see employees who care for someone who is ill or disabled to be able to access the same tax incentives as parents. In a report brought out last year, the Department for Work and Pensions recommended this development and asked the government to look into it with a pilot scheme; but nothing has happened yet, possibly because of the recession.
The development of the childcare voucher scheme into one which includes employees with caring responsibilities would follow the general development of legislation relating to these two groups. For example, the right to request flexible working is now applicable to those with responsibilities for caring for an adult, as well as parents of a child.
This is one to watch in the next couple of years, and it’s likely the development will happen in the future if the Employers for Carers group continues to campaign. As Iain Mc Math, a member of the group said in People Management Magazine:
“employers know that even though we are in a recession, the need to retain their talent is key’.
This is the reason that campaigners will still call for the vouchers to be extended to carers even during the financial downturn, so we may see more news about this coming out in the next few months.
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