Online survey seeks sector input on tax-free childcare

Tax-free childcare vouchers will be introduced from autumn 2015, and will provide eligible families with 20 per cent of their childcare costs up to £1,200 per child a year – which is equivalent to the basic rate tax relief of childcare costs up to £6,000 a year.

In the first phase, the offer will be open to around 1.3m families, where both parents are working and do not already receive support through tax credits, or Universal Credit, when this is introduced. The scheme will eventually be extended to all children under 12.

While a consultation on the design and operation of the scheme is currently running until October 14, the consultation document is complex and runs to 29 pages.

Lack of clarity around the scheme was highlighted In August when the Childcare Voucher Providers Association (CPVA) published a report, Making Childcare Work. It suggested that employers are currently unclear about how they will support parents through Tax-free childcare and called for the Government to ‘recognise and define a clear role for employers in the new scheme’.

The online survey now seeks to gather a wide response by asking simple, direct questions on key areas of the scheme, and takes around 15 minutes to complete.

For example, it asks providers’ views on how the payment process should be designed, whether settings themselves are interested in becoming voucher providers, how the market as a whole should be structured and how any troubleshooting could be dealt with.

A Government spokesperson said, ‘The questionnaire is a simple way for childcare providers to offer feedback on some of the proposals for this policy. It is an alternative way to respond to the consultation, rather than reading the full consultation document and submitting a response via email.’

The closing date for the questionnaire is 7 October and is accessed at www.surveymonkey.com/s/tax-free-childcare-childcare-providers-survey