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Corell University offers various benefits for its employees and one of those benefits is the
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Child Care Grant. Here you will get information on the Child Care Grant as well as a Dependent Care
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Flexible Spending Account that can also be used for child care expense. The Child Care Grant and
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the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account are benefits that are eligible to faculty and staff
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in benefits eligible positions. The expenses for either of these benefits has to be eligible under
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IRS rules for a legal dependent. The money is put away as tax pre-tax dollars and there's an
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application process. Note that funds must be used within the specific calendar year of the award
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and claims must be filed by April 30th of the following year. The maximum allowed for dependent
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care accounts is $5,000 and so whether you have only a Child Care Grant or a Child Care Grant
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and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, the combination of both can only be a maximum of $5,000.
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Here's some information specific to the Child Care Grant. The Child Care Grant is a Cornell-funded
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Grant and it assists employees with eligible child care expenses for legal children, legal
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dependents claimed on your tax return. Children who are between the ages of 6 weeks and 12 years
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old. Note if you have a child who is older than 12 and has a disability the Child Care Grant can also
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be used for eligible expenses. The share Grant is pre-tax dollars awarded for 12, 12-month expenses
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if you apply for the annual Grant. And occasionally Cornell also has a six-month grant for those who
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are not able to apply for the 12-month Grant. Note that funds must be used in the elected year as
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noted earlier and claims must be filed by the following year April 30th, or the funds will be
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lost. Note it is a use it or lose it account and so if you do not use the funds in the Child Care
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Grant by 31st of December of that year you will not be able to file a claim for the grant. In order
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to apply the annual income for your household is a maximum of $150,000 per year the employee must be
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unmarried or have a spouse or domestic partner who is working part-time, a full-time student, legally
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disabled, or unemployed and looking for work. If you're an employee who's pregnant or your spouse
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is expecting a child or you're adopting a child you may apply for a partial Grant and note that
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reimbursements will be begin once both parents are working after the leave. Here is our website
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for information on the Child Care Grant. Note here we will walk you through the process of applying for
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the Child Care Grant and the 2025 application has commenced the application period is September 30th,
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2024 through October 22nd, 2024. Which means the Grant application has already opened. If you visit
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our website hr.cornell.edu on the banner please click on 'Understand Your Benefits'. You will receive
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a drop-down box that will take you to 'Finances' and you want to click on 'Financial Assistance'.
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That will take you to this screen showing in the Financial Assistance page, you can click on the
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Child Care Grant link to get to the application. And you will see here with the red button where
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you can click and apply for the application. Note the Child Care Grant application period for the
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2025 Grant is September 30th through October 22nd, 2024. Just to give you a slight overview of the
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Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account which can also be used for child care expenses while working.
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Note that like the Child Care Grant, it is for a legal dependent you're claiming on your tax return.
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And the child must be between the ages of 6 weeks and 12 years old. This account too can be used for
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children with disabilities over the age of 12. The difference between the Child Care Grant award
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and the dependent care award is this award is self-funded. So the employee must put aside pre-tax
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funds through payroll to fund the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, a little different than
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the Child Care Grant the funds. For the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account have an additional
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period that can be used. So the Child Care Grant can only be used for that calendar year ending
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in December 31st. Whereas funds for the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account have an additional
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runout period through March 15th. This means if you sign up for a 2025 dependent care account you can
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use the funds in that account for any expenses incurred from January 1, 2025 through March 15,
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2026. Like the Child Care Grant, the dependent care account also has a filing deadline of April 30th.
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So any incurred expenses must have the claims filed by April 30th of the following year. The
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Dependent Care Flexible Account has an annual election, and so you will not automatically be
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re-enrolled. This means that during Open Enrollment you need to visit Workday and enroll in a
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dependent care account for the fund amount you'd like for your account. Here is our website to give
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you some more information on the dependent care account, as well as eligible expenses to help you
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understand funding a little bit better. Here's an example, if you were given a 2025 Child Care Grant
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award and that's from this Fall's application for the 12-month award, let's say the award amount is
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$2,000, you would then be able to enroll in a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account for a
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maximum of $3,000. That shows then that you have a combined amount of $5,000, which is the IRS maximum.
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If you receive a full Grant Award of $5,000 you would not be able to open a dependent care account
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under your workday account, as the funds cannot be pre-tax dollars past the $5,000 limit. Let's give a
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reimbursement explanation. So if, if you do receive a grant and your Grant is $2,000, as noted in the
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previous slide, then you can submit an application to Inspira Financial with a documentation. Let's
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use an example of twice in a year if you receive a 2025 Grant and you have receipts for the period
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of January through June. You can submit them in the amount as listed here of $1,000. Inspira
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Financial will then reimburse you $1,000, so that you're able to get your reimbursement from the
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eligible expenses. Let's say then in December you send in a claim for the additional amount but this
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amount is $1,500. Note that because your Child Care Grant is only $2,000, Inspira will only be able
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to reimburse you for $1,000 of that $1,500. Please be aware that you must have the expense incurred
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before you can use the funds and before you can submit claims. So you cannot submit in January for
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2025 expenses and will need to submit after you've incurred the expense after the child care has been
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given and you have receipts to show payment. Now for the dependent care reimbursement using the
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prior example if in 2025 you put aside $3,000 as your dependent care account amount then you would
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be able to submit for a $3,000 reimbursement of that fund if you submit in January of 2026
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for an amount of $1,500. Note that you would be reimbursed for this amount for for the January
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period of 2025. That amount is going to be $1,500 and that's what you would receive from Inspira
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as a reimbursement. Now note in March prior to the April 30th deadline in 2026 you can submit
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for the remaining expenses for your 2025 year. If you submit a $2,000 reimbursement request, note
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that only $1,500 can be reimbursed as that's the maximum contributed between the two reimbursement
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amounts. Unlike the Child Care Grant, the dependent care account must be funded through payroll before
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you can get expenses reimbursed, so you will only be reimbursed up to the maximum of what you have
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put in through payroll deduction and then the remaining balance of reimbursement can be paid
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as the payroll deductions are applied to your account. Just a few key points, as a reminder, the
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Child Care Grant and dependent care accounts are governed under the IRS rules and must be
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for eligible expenses pre-tax dollars are given for these two funds, and note that amount will be
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reported on your W2. The funds in the Child Care Grant and the dependent care account can only
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be paid once they're deposited and the expense has been incurred. So you must incur the expense before
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you submit claims. Claims must be submitted prior to April 30th of the following year to
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Inspira Financial and once again the maximum contribution between both the Child Care Grant
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and the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account is a maximum of $5,000. We hope this was helpful
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for you. Here are some resources if you need more information on the Child Care Grant please visit
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our website. Here is the Child Care Grant email. If there's specific questions that you may have
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and if you need information on the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, please visit our website
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as noted here. Thank you for your time and please let us know if you have any questions, thank you.
