Childcare Subsidy Update - Retroactive Payments Issued to Eligible Employees

The IRS has advised NTEU that it has issued retroactive childcare subsidy payments to roughly 500 employees as a result of NTEU’s grievance demanding the payments to eligible employees.

The IRS’ delay in launching the negotiated NTEU Childcare Subsidy Program prompted the union to file a national grievance seeking retroactive payments for those eligible employees who missed months of subsidies. Those payments, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2022, should now have been made to affected employees.

NTEU negotiated the Childcare Subsidy Program as part of the 2022 National Agreement. But it took the IRS nearly a year to officially launch the new program, which deprived employees of months of financial assistance they were due. The national grievance was filed and NTEU invoked arbitration. NTEU did not sit idle and allow employees to lose out on this new benefit. Instead, NTEU took action to ensure employees would receive the childcare subsidy benefit retroactively.

The open season period for initial enrollment in the childcare subsidy program was conducted last fall. The program provides employees with a total family income of less than $70,000 with up to $5,000 toward childcare. Employees with total family incomes between $70,000 and $90,000 are eligible for smaller subsidies.

NTEU is awaiting data from the IRS on the final numbers of enrollees, amounts of the subsidy payments and timing of the next open enrollment period. Watch for those updates.

In the meantime, NTEU is pleased that eligible employees have received the payments they are owed.