How COVID-19 Could Affect Your Dependent Care FSA

Child care is an expense many working parents bear, and it can be brutal. Currently, the average day care center charges $211 per week for infant care, reports Care.com, while full-day summer camp can easily cost $2,000 or more per child, depending on where you live.

Thankfully, there's a way to make child care costs just a bit more manageable. By putting money into a dependent care FSA, you can pay for child care with pre-tax dollars, thereby eking out some savings.

A dependent care FSA works just like the more popular healthcare FSA: You allocate funds in advance of your plan year to cover eligible child care costs, up to a maximum of $5,000, and you must use up that balance in the course of your plan year or otherwise risk forfeiting money. For parents who pay for full-time child care, or who rely on school systems to provide care during the year but need to send multiple children to camp, that $5,000 is easily attainable.