There’s not long to go before the New Child Care Package is introduced on 2 July! Whether you’re a new parent considering your child care options or your family’s already part of the system, the new Package will overhaul the current child care fee assistance to provide more support for more families.
If you’re unsure about what the new Package will mean for your family, see below for the key facts you’ll need to know:
- On 2 July, the current Child Care Rebate and Child Care Benefit will be replaced by a single Child Care Subsidy.
- Low and middle-income families will no longer have an annual cap on the amount of subsidised child care they can claim and families with higher incomes (earning up to $351,248) also benefiting with the cap being increased from $7,613 to $10,190 per child per year.
- Three things will determine how much Child Care Subsidy families can access including: combined family income, activity level of parents, and the type of child care service they use.
- A wide range of activities will be recognised for the Child Care Subsidy including: paid work (including leave), study or training, unpaid work in a family business, looking for work, volunteering, self-employment, setting up a new business (for up to six months) and other activities on a case-by-case basis. If paid or unpaid maternity leave is a condition of your employment, then that is also considered a recognised activity under the activity test.
- To transition to the subsidy, you’ll need to provide some new information and confirm your current details now through myGov. To find out more information, visit gov.au/childcare
You can also download the Child Care Package Flyer here.