Customer-unfriendly government processes (Tax-free Childcare edition)

[andrewducker]

In the UK most people can claim Tax-free Childcare from the government. Which tops up your childcare payments by 25%, up to a quarterly limit of £500.

The process/website for dealing with it is, frankly, rubbish. And, in a moment of frustration, I've written up why:

Current process:

1. I look at the amount I have to pay to the provider
2. I do a calculation (based on that amount, how much top-up remains, etc)
3. I transfer money to them (using different details per child)
4. I wait two hours
5. I come back and check to see if the money has been transferred and topped up. If not, return to (4).
6. I tell them to transfer it to the provider
7. They pay it to the provider.

Proposed process:

1. once only - I give them my bank details and direct debit permissions. As I do with multiple other sites.
2. I Tell them to pay X to the provider.
3. They do the maths for how much of my money to transfer, and confirm that with me.
4. They transfer it, top it up, and pay it to the provider, letting me know if there was a problem.

This means I have to make 1 visit to 1 website, rather than multiple trips to two websites (them and the bank), I don't have to do any maths, and I don't have to check back in after two hours to see if the transfer has happened yet.

And then multiply up my monthly frustration across all of the hundreds of thousands of people using this every month.

Oh, and yes, I sent them a shorter version of this.

Comments

[bens_dad]

The previous scheme worked better.

First of all the money was never mine to pay tax on then get a refund.
I said how much to put into the pot and my employer took that much out of my pre-tax pay,
and gave it to the scheme.
When I got a bill (cannot remember whether it was paper or electronic now) I logged in and asked them to send so much to the care provider (there was also a voucher for offline payment, but I never did that).

The scheme admin ensured that the provider was Ofsted registered; I've heard that the replacement scheme does not do that !

How long do you have to spend the money ?

When I left my then job there was money left in the pot which we continued to use, until Ofsted carers ceased to be able to care for Ben. When he got a placement I was able to reclaim the money left in the pot (though I then had to pay tax on it, fair enough). I guess the current scheme would not have had money left in a pot.

[andrewducker]

I think I can use it for as long as there is childcare to pay for. So until they're in high school for us, I assume.

[bens_dad]

I was thinking more: if you only use £300 this quarter, can you use more next quarter (summer holidays) or next year, and if you lose your job can you still spend your £500 ?

[andrewducker]

Top up resets every quarter. And it only tops up. So no in both cases.

(There was also the guaranteed nursery hours, that didn't require us to pay anything. But obviously only applied in nursery.)

[soemand]

In Canada it’s automatic, the government provides the $ to the daycare directly. Only thing is I have to ensure my little one is also registered in the government’s portal. A 10 minute exercise, once.

[andrewducker]

How much do they provide?

In my case it's going to the after school club and two different daycares depending on which my kids fancy.

And it's a top up, so they don't cover all of it.

[soemand]

I have no idea how much they provide, the math is reversed. The current goal is to have the average price to be $10/day.

https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/campaigns/child-care.html

My little one is in preschool and we pay a smidge more than that. Overall, everyone is subsidized, and you can also submit an application for further subsidies.

This was a Trudeau the younger legacy item, like marijuana was.

[bens_dad]

Is $10/day the charge to the parents or the payment to the provider ?

For preschoolers the English* government is providing an increasing number of free hours (depending upon age) but they aren't paying the providers enough to cover costs and there are stories of nurseries being forced out of business ...

*Other parts of the UK get about the same money per head and can make their own rules.

[soemand]

It’s 10$ per day, on average, for the parents. The provincial and federal governments pay the balance, and have agreements in place with the service providers.

Copilot suggests that this would be Preschool (2–5 yrs) $35 – $38 per day un-subsidized.

In practice, the 10$ per day was a backdoor nationalization, due to constitutional reasons daycares are regulated at the provincial level while the funding comes from the federal level. The main impact is the standard are across the country for ratios — the number of kids per teacher, outdoor time, etc.

The fees support a tax deduction on yearly taxes.

I just received notification that my costs are dropping by 2$/day starting may 1.

[andrewducker]

Ah, that makes sense. Nice system.

In nursery we also had 30 hours of free childcare per week once each kid turned 3. That made a big difference.