The need for quality childcare is increasing in Australia, but being able to afford to enrol a child in one of the many child care centres around the country is a challenge for many families and single parents or guardians.
In order to make childcare affordable for everyone, the Australian Government offers assistance via a scheme called the Child Care Subsidy. Read on to discover more about CCS, using a child care subsidy calculator, how to claim it, who is eligible and some recent changes made to the scheme.
What is the Child Care Subsidy?
Childcare should be affordable for everyone, no matter what their current circumstances, and so the government created a support initiative in 2018 to make this possible. The payment is means-tested and designed to assist low and middle-income families to be able to afford quality childcare. The subsidy is higher for parents with children aged 5 or younger and if you have more than one child in this age bracket, you may be eligible for an even higher rate of subsidy. This is the Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS).
How to Claim CCS: To claim the Child Care Subsidy, you need to apply through Centrelink. This can be done by either visiting your local Centrelink office, or by logging into your MyGov account online and accessing the Centrelink portal. One advantage to doing the application online is that you can track its progress. It’s a good idea to do as much research as possible on the CCS program first so you fully understand what it’s about.
Eligibility Requirements to Receive CCS
Approval to receive assistance under the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) scheme isn’t a foregone conclusion. You must first meet the eligibility requirements to be approved to receive the subsidy.
Some key requirements include:
- How much subsidy you can claim is based on the combined income of your family, with more financial support available for low-income families. If the combined income is $80,000 or less, you can claim 90% of eligible childcare fees. The percentage is reduced in tiers for higher income levels.
- Parents (or carers) must care for the child at least 14% of the time or 2 nights per fortnight to be eligible to receive CCS.
- Applicants must also be citizens of Australia, or be on a permanent or special category visa.
- To be approved, you must have a child or children 13 years of age or younger, with higher rates of subsidy for children aged 5 and under.
- Activity levels are also assessed and include how many hours the parents work, looking for work, performing unpaid work in a family business, volunteering and studying.
- The child must meet immunisation requirements.
Child Care Subsidy Calculator
In order to discover approximately how much subsidy you may be eligible for and what the fees will be after the subsidy has been applied, you can use a child care subsidy estimator.
Many childcare and early learning centres will have a handy calculator on their website that you can use to get a good idea of what the net fees will be, so search the website of a facility you’re interested in to see if a child care subsidy calculator is available.
Once you’ve located the calculator, it’s a simple matter of populating a few fields and letting the calculator determine the approximate net fees payable.
What Changes Were Made to CCS on 10 July 2023?
There were some important changes to CCS that came into effect in July 2023 that should be considered:
- The income ceiling for subsidy eligibility was increased from $356,756 to $530,000
- The subsidy amount for families with a combined income below $80,000 rose from 85% to 90%
- Regardless of activity hours, families of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children will be eligible for 36 hours of subsidy per child per fortnight
- There are no changes to the higher Child Care Subsidy
Final Words
The Child Care Subsidy provided by the Australian Government ensures that quality childcare is now affordable for just about everyone. Therefore, if you’ve been considering childcare, you can enrol your child with complete confidence that you’ll be able to afford it.