Following a Financial Times interview with Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson considering a review of childcare including the £100k childcare eligibility threshold, Industry Experts call for deeper Childcare solutions.
LONDON/EDINBURGH 26 March 2026 — Halo Benefits, a compliance platform for workplace family support, welcomes the news as found in a recent Financial Times interview that Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is reviewing childcare provision, including potentially the £100,000 “cliff edge” threshold. While the expansion of funded hours to nine months is aiding families, the current model still fails to provide the necessary support for many working parents, creating a need for employer intervention.
Jennifer Liston-Smith, Business Psychologist comments: “Whilst it’s welcome news in principle that Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is reviewing childcare provision in order to make it simpler, there’s an ongoing need for employers to step into the space to play a role alongside parents and childcare providers. The funded places, while helpful, do not cover the hours needed for many parents to keep a career on track, let alone covering the costs for the nurseries. To address skills gaps in the UK and boost labour market participation, we certainly need high quality childcare available to people of all income levels.”
Also Read: What are the VAT Exemption Policies for Education Providers?
Anna Semple, CEO of Halo Benefits, a Workplace Childcare Compliance platform adds: “Anything that the government can do to make early years childcare more accessible and affordable will ultimately support parents returning to the workforce and strengthen our economy. But as Jennifer points out, the private sector could be very impactful, right now, vs anything the government might eventually implement.”
Anna continues, “Lowering the threshold and/or raising the cap would certainly be welcomed by parents. More low-income, part-time working parents would have access to Early Years learning while higher earners would be less impacted by the current means-testing, however, there still remains the perpetual challenge of finding spaces for those additional children when nurseries are de-incentivised due to the funded hours rate falling short of the private rates that most nurseries charge in order to cover costs. Nurseries are a critical public service.”
UK tax law allows employers to support childcare tax-free where they can demonstrate genuine participation in both the financing and the management of the care being provided. The legislation is deliberately flexible and explicitly permits partnership with commercial nursery providers.
Also Read: The Best Ways to Use Year 6 Maths Worksheets to Benefit Your Child
In practice, uptake has been extremely low. Guidance has been cautious, tests are subjective, and there has been no shared infrastructure to evidence compliance consistently. As a result, employers have effectively been forced to assess and carry the risk on their own.
Halo Benefits addresses this gap by providing a standardised compliance layer that makes employer participation easier, more visible, verifiable and reviewable over time.
Jennifer concludes: To support growth in the UK, we need high quality childcare as part of the infrastructure, available to people across the whole range of occupations. It also needs to serve those in the most disadvantaged areas as well as the higher earners who currently stall their income or progression for fear of losing out on the support when they breach the upper limit”
About Halo Benefits
Founded in 2025, Halo Benefits is an employer benefits platform based in Edinburgh and London. The company focuses on unlocking private investment in childcare by providing compliance infrastructure that enables employers, nurseries and parents to work together within the existing tax framework. Halo combines AI, digital-ledger technology and specialist tax expertise to make employer-backed childcare viable at scale.