Dear Families,
Bianca, Sus and myself attended a session last Friday about the upcoming changes to the child care benefits.
First and foremost letters will be going out to families from centrelink. We ask that you read them and please take note of them as a lot is solely going to the reasonability of the parent to ensure that they have been in contact with centrelink as per their letter. Families currently using child care will be contacted in the next month with more details about the changes.
One of the most important things is if you haven’t accessed your “My Gov’ account , my advice is to please look at this and ensure you are able to access your accounts as a lot of information will be going through this page for families and also you will use this to get information from centrelink as well as updating information. For families who do not have access to the internet or the “My Gov” page we believe that centrelink are working on ways to ensure that you met their requirements and will be in contact with families.
Implementation of the Jobs for Families Package and new Child Care Subsidy is due to commence 2 July this year. As you may already know, the single Child Care Subsidy (CCS) is a new payment that will replace the Child Care Rebate and Child Care Benefit for families using a variety of early childhood services including centre based care, family day care, outside school hours and vacation care, in home care and occasional care. The CCS will be paid directly to providers (centres), and families will pay the difference between the fee charged by the provider and the subsidy.
As a service provider we are required to action steps that the Government has asked us to do. The final stage of the transition, in terms of technology, will be to create new enrolments for each child who will be in care in our service from 2 July, which we will be doing from April. Registration under the new system is necessary because the Child Care Package requires different information and has different criteria for calculating the Child Care Subsidy.
We will be sending out new enrolment forms with a slight change within the document called “written agreement “this must be completed and signed by the parent and returned with the enrolment form. This will be used by the government to ensure that what we have booked as your child’s attendances are true and correct.
Estimating Child Care Subsidy
A Family Child Care Subsidy Estimator is available to make it easy for families to get an idea of what their new subsidy might be under the New Child Care Package.
The estimator is user-friendly and only takes a few minutes to fill out.
How is my entitlement to the new subsidy calculated?
The Department of Human Services will calculate your entitlement based on the information you will provide to them about your combined annual family income, activity hours and type of service you use. If there are other circumstances relevant to you, they will need information about this as well.
How do I find out if I will be out of pocket?
You can see the estimate breakdown for each child including your out of pocket costs when you click on the option ‘FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR CHILD CARE SUBSIDY CLICK HERE’.
Is the calculation in the estimator per child, or a total of your child care entitlement?
The estimate result is for all children in your family per fortnight. You can see the estimate breakdown for each child including your out of pocket costs when you click on the option ‘FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR CHILD CARE SUBSIDY CLICK HERE’.
How accurate is the online estimator?
The Child Care Subsidy Estimator is designed to give you an idea of how much Child Care Subsidy you could expect to receive when it commences on 2 July 2018. The estimate will be based on the information you provide. If any information is incorrect, the estimate will also be incorrect.
When using the estimator, you can see the estimate breakdown for each child, including the 10 per cent withholding and your out of pocket costs, when you click on the option ‘FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR CHILD CARE SUBSIDY CLICK HERE’.
Activity test
Family entitlement to the Child Care Subsidy will be determined by a three-step activity test, more closely aligning the hours of subsidised care with the combined hours of work, training, study or other recognised activity undertaken, and providing for up to 100 hours of subsidy per fortnight.
For more information on the new child care package, visit www.education.gov.au
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me. I will try and assist but am aware that centrelink are trying to get the information to families as you will be dealing with them directly.
Please see attachments
key_changes_for_families_fact_sheet_
The new childcare package – brochure for families
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