Blogging with the big boys...

Those nice folks at Samizdata have very graciously agreed to put up my piece about "Election Bribes" from last Friday which I felt was deserving of a wider audience than the small (but perfectly formed) regular readership that drop in here.

As an update on the story, I spoke to someone more senior from Soexho today who assured me that their online calculator was wrongly coded and there was no dip in the entitlement. (It is a surprising coincidence that Accor's calculator was also wrong, which suggests either poor testing or poorly documented DWP guidance.)

The calculator now gives different figures to yesterday but it still dips.

I also asked in passing how the scheme was funded for a Company such as theirs. The Government don't give them anything apparently, the Employers pass on some of the Employer NIC savings. The margins are small, however it must be nice to have a few million slushing around the system in transit between employees and childcare providers, no doubt playing the money markets brings in a few bob.