Family

The Childcare Salary Direct offer provides BT employees with savings of up to £1,000 a year on the cost of childcare, depending on their personal tax position, administered through BT's partner agency care-4.

Under the scheme, the first £55/week of childcare costs paid through the scheme will be free from tax and National Insurance contributions, a saving of up to £1,066 per annum, depending on the rate at which you pay tax and National Insurance. You must agree to exchange some of your salary in return for the childcare benefit. This amount is fixed for a period of 12 months and will be transferred into your care-4 childcare account on a monthly basis.

Participants can nominate any carer to be paid through the scheme, provided they are registered or approved. However, Benefits Plus has deals with a number of nurseries nationwide, which offer additional savings to BT employees. See individual listings in the Family section for details.

Registered care includes:

• Registered nurseries
• Registered childminders
• After school clubs
• Play schemes
• Crèches.

Approved care* includes:

• Nannies
• Unregistered carers.

*All approved carers must be certified to confirm that they have completed the new Home Approval Scheme. Full details are at: www.childcareapprovalscheme.co.uk

You can register to participate in the scheme by calling 0870 870 4114, Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm and Saturdays 9am to 5pm, or visiting visit www.bt.care-4.co.uk

To register, you will need to provide the following information:

• BT reference - BTKIDS
• Employee number
• Full name and address of your carer
• Name and date of birth of each of your children
• Annual childcare costs amount.

Emergency childcare

As a working parent, there may be times when you need to seek an alternative emergency solution to your normal childcare arrangements, at short notice.

Care-4 has teamed up with Emergency Childcare to bring you this additional service - providing you with the opportunity to search online for registered back-up nursery places or childminders. This can be paid for via salary direct, using your care-4 account. You can also search for emergency nannies through the site, although this cannot be paid through care-4.

The service can be accessed via the Emergency Childcare link on the care-4 website or direct at: www.emergencychildcare.co.uk/care-4. Through the site, you can search for nursery spaces and book places for as early as the next day, or at any time up to three weeks in advance. You can also talk to an agent by phoning care-4 on 0870 870 4114 and selecting the Emergency Childcare helpline.

All nurseries are OFSTED registered, so you can choose to pay for the place using your care-4 account, thus saving the tax and National Insurance contributions on the cost. Alternatively, if you have no available funds in your care-4 account, you can pay by credit card.

Willcraft Services Ltd

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