Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Nursery provisionChildcareLatest NewsSalary Sacrifice

HMRC to clamp down on misapplied childcare scheme

by Jo Faragher 19 Jul 2024
by Jo Faragher 19 Jul 2024 Some businesses have been paying intermediaries for childcare places that don't comply with the government scheme
Shutterstock
Some businesses have been paying intermediaries for childcare places that don't comply with the government scheme
Shutterstock

HM Revenue & Customs is clamping down on employers that may have wrongly used a government benefit to reduce childcare costs for staff.

Using salary sacrifice via a government childcare support scheme, employees’ nursery fees are deducted from their salary, meaning staff pay lower tax and national insurance contributions on the reduced salary.

But accountants have warned that an increasing number of companies are not meeting the eligibility criteria for the scheme. Businesses that sign up are expected to provide a workplace nursery for parents either onsite or through an external agreement.

Some are using “agents” or “promoters” to secure childcare places with providers under arrangements that do not comply with the scheme.

Childcare schemes

Employees with access to company childcare do more in-office hours 

Free childcare plans: 40,000 extraf staff needed by September 2025

According to HMRC’s rules, employers need to be “wholly or partly responsible for the financing and managing of the provision” of childcare to qualify for the benefit.

Susan Ball, employer tax partner at accounting firm RSM UK, said employers and staff could face “potentially large” tax bills as a result of the clampdown.

“If a nursery scheme should have been taxable and the employer has not declared this as a benefit in kind, on their P11D form or via payroll, HMRC can go back up to six years to check whether tax exemption has been claimed when it shouldn’t have been,” she said.

“There may be interest and penalties going back several years, so the impact of this could be significant for many.

“This has implications for employees too, who will not be happy if they are landed with an unexpected tax bill because their employer doesn’t pick up the liability.”

HMRC said it will publish updated guidance for employers to ensure they don’t fall foul of intermediaries that fail to meet the criteria.
Ball added: “Employers who offer such schemes should act now to review their position. Those that have incorrectly claimed the tax exemption should make a voluntary disclosure to HMRC as soon as possible.

“The new Labour government may want to consider what additional support they could offer to parents.

“One option could be reopening the childcare voucher scheme to new applicants, which could be done fairly rapidly if they wanted to.

“Any support with childcare costs does enable people to get back into work or increase their hours which would boost productivity, a key aim of this government.”

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

 

 

Jo Faragher

Jo Faragher has been an employment and business journalist for 20 years. She regularly contributes to Personnel Today and writes features for a number of national business and membership magazines. Jo is also the author of 'Good Work, Great Technology', published in 2022 by Clink Street Publishing, charting the relationship between effective workplace technology and productive and happy employees. She won the Willis Towers Watson HR journalist of the year award in 2015 and has been highly commended twice.

previous post
Gender-critical worker loses preferred pronouns case
next post
How HR can help employees think like Olympians

You may also like

Why 2025 is ‘make or break’ for your...

25 Feb 2025

Working parents increasingly stressed

13 Jan 2025

Childcare and flexible working: proof it can be...

28 Dec 2024

Financial and mental wellbeing at Christmas 

19 Dec 2024

Retention payments to tackle decline in armed forces

22 Nov 2024

Childcare costs stop millennials from saving for retirement

30 Sep 2024

Bright Horizons: ‘New government must raise status of...

3 Jul 2024

Labour to create 100,000 additional childcare places

10 Jun 2024

Employees with access to company childcare do more...

6 Jun 2024

Childcare expansion: risks could have been avoided

24 Apr 2024

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+