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alliapistor
member
Dependent Care Flex Spending ??
alliapistor
member
I'm a Fed if that matters. I'm due in late August, which means I will be finishing my maternity leave in late November and putting the baby into some form of childcare for part of November and December.
I did not sign up for the dependent care flex spending account this year because, quite honestly, it didn't occur to me at sign up time as we had just gotten our BFP.
Are Flex accounts like insurance with life qualifying events that let you create an account or modify the amount you put aside upon the birth of a child?
After LO arrives, can I submit his/her health expenses to my Flex Spending Account? Or do I have to set up a separate account for him/her?
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Re: Dependent Care Flex Spending ??
You should be able to sign up for dependent care spending once you have the baby. I signed up during our open enrollment, sort of low balling the amount as I wasn't sure what the cost would be. I had asked if I could change that amount depending on what we go with for child care. I was told I could either sign up now for it and spread it out throughout my paychecks or I could sign up after baby was born and obviously have a larger chunk. I chose the prior simply because I'd rather have some money come out of pocket then to have a larger sum in the end. So yes, you should be able to sign up when you have the baby.
As for Flex spending, yes, you can use that on your child's co-pays, etc. because s/he will be added as a dependent once born. It's no different then your husband being able to use the flex spending if you're on the same insurance.
I have to caveat my post with saying that I'm not an expert on this and you should definitely consult your HR representative. I can only tell you what happened in my case.
My understanding is that the birth of a child does qualify as a life change event. When I had my baby, I could add her to my health insurance, dental insurance, and I could change the amount on my Flexible Spending Account and my Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account for the remainder of the year. You have to be careful with the health and dependent care flexible spending accounts though so definitely talk with you HR to make sure you have a good understanding of how it works. Also, do your homework with both HR and the administrator of your flexible spending account and try to get as much as possible in writing.
In my case, let's say I put in $100 per month in my Flex Spending Account or $500 during the period of Jan - May before the baby was born. Then after my baby was born in June, I could change the amount of my flexible spending account. Let's say I changed it to $50 per month for Jun-Dec ($400 total).
For the first $500 that I put in for Jan-May, I could only submit receipts that were dated from Jan-May for that first $500. So, we had to make sure that we spent that full $500 before the baby was born. DH and I ended up getting glasses so that we would use up all of the money. Then for the money I put in after the qualifying life event ($400), I had to make sure my receipts were between Jun and December. So, in my case it was almost like they created two separate plan years and I couldn't submit receipts from one time period to count against money from the other time period.
The other problem I ran into is that I started a Dependent Care account when my baby was born. So, they started taking money out of my account while I was on maternity leave because I was using sick and vacation time to cover some of my time off. So, let's say they took out money from Jun 1 - July 31 for dependent care. For my last month of maternity leave (August), I was on unpaid leave so I had no income. For some reason, the Dependent Care Administration company canceled my account while I was on unpaid leave. Then when I came back to work, they started my Dependent Care account again. However, they said that for the dependent care money that was taken out from Jun 1- July 31, that I could only submit receipts from that specific time period. Of course, my child wasn't in daycare during that time period because I was on maternity leave. Anyway, somehow I worked around it but it was a mess and no one seemed to know how things worked.
So, I would just encourage you to talk to HR and talk to the company that administers your plan so that you can understand how everything works. Also, try to get as much in writing as possible because it can get very complicated and the last thing you want is to not be able to use all of you money.
ETA: Also, check with your insurance company about co-pays for the baby. I believe that most insurance companies are not allowed to charge a co-pay for well-baby visits. I know that none of my well-baby visits incurred a co-pay charge.
Personally speaking, yes, it's a life changing event that you can then sign up (you talk to HR) - I assume I had to provide some info on Ben but don't remember.
Since I already take out the max ($5K) for dependent care, I don't have to worry about changing it for baby girl.
The pool for FSA money is for everyone in the family. When I submit expenses, I choose either myself, spouse or dependent.