Context:

I am a first time mom.

My job offers dependent care FSA through national benefits solution.

I am in the 22% tax bracket.

The $5,000 contribution to Dependent Care FSA (DCF) would not put me in a lower tax bracket.

The $5K contribution would save be about ~$2K in taxes upfront (according to one of those internet calculators).

I will be spending more than $5K in childcare in the year.

Hesitations:

My job has not provided a lot of information up front about how this benefit work, they don't even include the phone number for national benefits solution and it took me some digging to find it who the servicing institution even was. From my experience with short term disability, this means that my employer will be completely unhelpful in answering any questions, providing any guidance or support with this benefit and will just tell me I need to call them because they don't handle it -_-

Also dealing with these big money firms it means every question, issue or clarification requires an hour plus on the phone while being given the run around to different departments.

I don't love the idea of $400 being pulled out of my paychecks monthly and then me having to submit paperwork every month to get that money back. Assuming that this is how national benefits solution does it since there is no information provided anywhere about what their process is like.

I am looking at over $800.00 being pulled from my checks monthly if we included health insurance. It is doable for my budget after some quick calculations but it still makes me nervous!

I guess the question is, is it still worth it to sign up for the dependent care FSA?

Is there anything I am not considering or missing?

I see a lot of people claiming it is totally worth it just based of the couple of thousand you save in taxes up front, do ya'll agree with this? Wouldn't it be on a case by case basis? Anyone who felt it was not really worth it?