Maximise parents’ savings while removing the administrative burden from your HR team
What are Childcare Vouchers?
The RG Childcare scheme is a great way for employers to support working parents and save their organisation money on tax and NI costs.
The UK government closed the Childcare Vouchers scheme to new entrants in October 2018, but for those parents who were in the scheme before this date Childcare Vouchers remains a fantastic benefit that they can continue to use as long as they are eligible.
It is also possible for employers to change their Childcare Vouchers provider to ensure their existing employee members are getting the most benefit from it as possible. Reward Gateway offers a simple, hassle-free process for transferring members from an employer's existing provider to the RG Childcare programme.
How do Childcare Vouchers Work?
Note: For users of Childcare Vouchers, salary adjustment takes the form of salary sacrifice. Monthly repayments come out of gross pay, resulting in tax and NI savings for them, and NI savings for the employer too.
Choose: RG Childcare is designed to give employees full control of where their payments are going. They can register any HMRC recognised carer to receive vouchers, and payments go directly from their salary to the provider. They can pause payments if circumstances change, and even save money in their pot for one-off costs like holiday programmes.
Choose: You can set up Childcare Vouchers on Pre-Approval, for reduced admin. With Pre-Approval, the system processes applications automatically, based on eligibility data supplied in advance. If you want full control over the process, you can choose Post-Approval instead, and approve, reject and amend requests manually after each window.
Note: Childcare Vouchers are part of SmartPay™, our salary sacrifice and payroll benefits administration portal. On SmartPay™ you can manage all Reward Gateway salary sacrifice and payroll benefits in one place, and download the reports you need to process salary deductions.
Things to consider with Childcare Vouchers transfers
To create RG Childcare accounts for transferring users, we will need:
- The details of transferring users, entered on a template we will send you
- User data provided to RG at least 1 month before the first voucher date
Once accounts are created, users need to supply children and carer details:
- We will reach out to them to let them know where to enter these
- We can provide you with reports to chase users with outstanding tasks
What is the date employees should receive their first RG voucher?
- Please allow plenty of time for the setup, as per the guidelines below:
- 0 - 25 transferees: 2 - 3 weeks
- 26 -50 transferees: 2 - 6 weeks
- 51 -100 transferees: 3 - 8 weeks
- 100+ transferees: 6 - 10 weeks
- To receive the first voucher on time, users need to complete their account details before the Approval Date (see more details below)
- We recommend timing this so it doesn’t fall during or close to April. This is when employers need to recheck all parents' Basic Earnings Assessments against their current salary and the year's tax thresholds
- If parents still have money in their account with the old provider, they should keep using it until it runs out, then begin payments through RG
How many payrolls are there in your business? For each we will need:
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Name (e.g. Monthly) - required to assign users to the correct payrolls
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Frequency (monthly, weekly, fortnightly)
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First Pay Day to set up in the system (i.e. date employees are paid)
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First Cut-off Date (i.e. date the first deduction report will be available)
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Approval Date (i.e. date when all applications for the current window are generated from user contribution details, and ready for approval)
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Approver - one or more users to manage applications in each payroll
How would you like to pay for the orders placed during each window?
- We recommend setting up a Direct Debit, so payments to RG are automated, and we can release Childcare Vouchers on the cut-off date
- If you choose not to set up a Direct Debit, we will invoice you at the end of each window, and release all vouchers after receiving payment
Who will manage your Childcare Vouchers programme on SmartPay™?
- Master Approver - can access payroll information, application details and product configuration settings for all benefits set up on SmartPay™
- Payroll Approver - can access all payrolls set up on SmartPay™
- Product Approver - can manage Childcare Vouchers settings
Additional information for your eligibility file
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Payroll name - required for each employee
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Date of birth - required on Pre-Approval
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Annual gross salary - required on Pre-Approval
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Weekly hours worked - optional on Pre-approval (system default is 40)
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Weeks worked per year - optional on Pre-approval (system default is 52)
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Other gross salary deductions - optional on Pre-Approval
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SmartPay™ Limit - optional, if you are setting a maximum allowance for the total amount of each employee’s RG benefit applications