Fortnightly repayments to assist Queensland families
Queensland parents are keen to take advantage of Prime Minister Gillard’s election promise to reduce the childcare rebate period to fortnightly payments.
From 1 July 2011, the Gillard Government will reduce the current childcare rebate period of three months down to fortnightly so parents will have more money in their weekly budget.
Childcare Queensland President Peter Price says that parents are finally getting what they have been wanting for years.
“This change in payment period will see parents receive a fortnightly boost to their budget that will make childcare so much more affordable for those on low incomes,” Mr Price said.
“This will mean parents may have up to $200 a week repaid to them each fortnight rather than the current quarterly instalments,” he said.
“The next step is to have the payments paid directly to the centres to avoid double handling and extra costs to the Government.”
Linda who has one child in care and is expecting her second child says to receive the rebates more regularly will allow her to budget more easily for the childcare on which her family depends.
“The rebate will help with the family budget as we are outlaying around $17,000 a year on childcare and to have the 50% rebate paid every two weeks will make a big difference to our budget,” Linda said.
“The change in rebate payments period will make a difference to families that are on tight budgets and will allow them to use childcare more frequently,” she said.
“Our daughter loves childcare and we as a family have made many friends in the local community through the centre.”
Antonia, a parent of two children in childcare says that the fortnightly payments will make all the difference to the family budget.
“Our family depends on childcare so my husband and I can work and so the children receive additional stimulation that we as parents cannot always provide,” Antonia said.
“To go from waiting three months to two weeks will allow us to budget better around the childcare rebate.”
Childcare Queensland is Australia’s largest state child care organisation with a membership of 850 long-day care centres, caring for 115,000 children, communicating with over 210,000 parents and representing 15,000 staff.
