Have you researched all of the available financial support towards your childcare costs? Do you know which option best suits your needs? Eligibility can vary depending on your income, working hours, and family circumstances. It’s always worth checking what you qualify for. There are several types of financial support available here in Northern Ireland and at Bumbles, we continue to work with as many schemes as possible to ensure our families can benefit from support. Here’s a helpful overview:
1. Tax-Free Childcare
Eligible working families can receive up to £2,000 per child per year (£4,000 for children with disabilities) towards childcare costs. For every £8 you pay in, the government adds £2. This can be used with registered childcare providers. Read more here.
2. Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme (NICSS)
If eligible, you can claim 15% of your childcare costs via the NICSS each month, up to the new cap of £203 per child. Bumbles generates a claim for every child who has been approved, via the appropriate NICSS portal for each setting. Every month, you will see the NICSS discount applied to your regular booking pattern, resulting in a discounted monthly total. I calculate and submit the claim for each child first through the NICSS portal, and then follow with the Famly app invoices. Read more and apply here.
3. Universal Credit (Childcare Element)
If you are working and on Universal Credit, you may be able to claim back up to 85% of your childcare costs. This can be a significant contribution for eligible families.
4. Support for Students
If you are a student, you may be able to access childcare support through student finance. There is a good bit of paperwork involved in this so the sooner you inform Bumbles, the sooner we can ensure you are paid the appropriate costs in a timely manner.
5. Employer Childcare Schemes
Some employers offer childcare vouchers or workplace nursery schemes (note: many voucher schemes are now closed to new applicants but may still benefit existing users). We currently receive payments from Employers for Childcare, Bravo Benefits, Care4, Endenred, Wider Plan to give as examples.
6. Bright Horizons
Some of our families can access Bright Horizons through their workplace (Citibank, Visa and PWC are a few we are aware of) which is a scheme that pays 20 days childcare per year. It is meant to be ’emergency childcare’ however, we only offer it to existing families whom we know, to support their childcare costs. You must only choose your regular booking pattern days when requesting days via Bright Horizons and there is an approval process before the day gets confirmed. These days do not come off your monthly invoice. Bright Horizons should pay the amount the month after the care is given, however this has proven a challenging admin task – and can take up to a few months before correct references for BH payment amounts we receive are confirmed and can be applied to particular Famly bookings. Your Famly account will show a negative balance until the Bright Horizons payment has been allocated.
7. Yellownest
In the last year, we have worked alongside Yellownest, a further workplace scheme who operate through a simple Salary Exchange arrangement, saving you up to 41% off childcare fees. Salary exchange enables you to pay your childcare fees from your gross salary which leads to a reduction in Tax and National Insurance contributions. As well as helping support parents, this scheme contributes to nursery life aswell, and we are delighted to have just received a significant contribution to new resources at Bumbles on the Hill, through one family using Yellownest since 2025.
To view Bumbles current daily fees and payment T&Cs, please click here.
