With the cost-of-living crisis continuing to hit people’s pockets hard, those with children are also having to find the cash for ever-increasing childcare fees. So, here we look at how you can seriously improve your employees’ financial wellbeing and benefit your business with Mintago’s Childcare Salary Sacrifice Scheme.
Spiralling spending
The harsh reality is that the financial wellbeing of many of your employees may be suffering significantly due to the spiralling price of childcare. Indeed, according to a recent report, the average cost in the UK of full-time nursery care, for 50 hours per week, for a child under two years old is nearly £15,000 a year. Another recent survey revealed that one in four parents said that the cost of childcare was more than 75% of their take-home pay.
This is obviously putting a great deal of financial pressure on people, and according to a recent study, over a third (37%) of UK parents have had to take time off work or reduce their hours because of the high cost of childcare. However, the impact of this does not end there, as some of your employees may be in severe hardship as a result. This research also found that around 6.9 million (47%) UK parents have had to make spending sacrifices because of the high cost of childcare and, alarmingly, around 1.2 million parents (8%) have had to reduce spending on essential items, such as food and heating, because of this.
However, UK working parents can apply for some free childcare from the Government, and this assistance is being extended over the next few months. But, while this is no doubt welcome, it is only available during term time and for a limited number of hours, and your hard-working employees will no doubt need more help to ensure they can make ends meet, especially if they need to work full-time.
Reducing the pressure with the Childcare Salary Sacrifice Scheme
With Mintago’s Childcare Salary Sacrifice Scheme, you can easily help reduce this financial pressure on your employees. This will enable your employees with children to pay for nursery fees on a salary sacrifice basis and cut their childcare costs by up to 47%, which is sure to make a big difference to their financial wellbeing. In fact, the Childcare Salary Sacrifice scheme is great value for both your employees and your business, as there are no costs for your workers to opt in and it is cost-neutral for your company, with savings of 1.38% of the salary sacrifice amount.
Moreover, this scheme can benefit a large number of your staff, as all employees are eligible, provided the amount of salary they sacrifice does not reduce their income below the national minimum wage. Nursery coverage is also great as the scheme includes as many as 2,000 nurseries and any other nursery setups only take two to three weeks, with an 80% to 90% success rate.
With childcare costs reduced in this way, the financial stress that many of your employees may be suffering from in the current cost-of-living crisis should be considerably eased. This can also have surprisingly strong benefits for your business, as it could significantly improve the performance of your workers. According to recent Mintago research, 43% of respondents said they had lost sleep and 32% said they struggled with day-to-day tasks because of financial concerns, so lifting this pressure could have a really positive effect on productivity.
Business Benefits of the Childcare Salary Sacrifice Scheme
In fact, while the Childcare Salary Sacrifice Scheme is a great benefit for employees, it also has invaluable benefits for your business. Indeed, a key advantage that it could bring is to help promote a more positive workplace culture at your company, supporting diversity and inclusion. With an estimated 1.7 million women reportedly prevented from taking on more hours of work because of childcare issues, and two-thirds of UK women saying, in a recent study, that childcare duties have affected their career progression, it is likely that by helping female employees get the affordable childcare they need, you could considerably improve gender diversity in your workplace with this scheme.
Boosting diversity in your company in this way could help you retain your employees and attract top talent, as according to Glassdoor, 76% of employees and job seekers report that a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers. It could also directly help improve the success of your business, as a recent report revealed that companies with more gender-diverse executive teams were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability.
So, while it is important to provide a range of good employee benefits, if you want to be an employer of choice, offering outstanding ones, such as Mintago’s Childcare Salary Sacrifice Scheme, could not only improve your employees’ financial wellbeing, but ensure your business goes from strength to strength.
To discover more about our Childcare Salary Sacrifice Scheme, and the other first-rate employee benefits we offer, contact us today.