Changes to Childcare rebate make childcare more accessible to low income families
Queensland parents have received a boost to their regular fortnightly income thanks to the passing in Federal Parliament of legislation to make the major parent subsidy, the Child Care Rebate (CCR), payable fortnightly as an option for struggling families.
Parents will have the choice to have their rebate payable directly off their child care fees, almost halving the cost of long day child care at the hip pocket.
Herston parent Jessica Curtis says that the fortnightly childcare rebate payments will make childcare more affordable for her family.
“We are very pleased that the childcare rebate is now available fortnightly. It will make childcare more affordable and our budget easier to handle,” Jessica said.
Childcare Queensland CEO, Ms Gwynn Bridge, says parents have fought long and hard for this change.
“We are so pleased the Parliament passed legislation to enable these changes. Families are really hurting financially and this will help them with the increased costs of early learning,” she says.
However, parents should be aware the Government was planning to withhold 15 per cent of their CCR entitlement until after the end of the income year in order to minimise any debt owed to the Government as a result of income changes.
“When it comes to appreciating that the cost of living impacts on our families, the support for improving the Child Care Rebate was across the political divide,” Ms Bridge says.
“Queensland families really struggle with the cash flow caused by waiting three months for a rebate on their child care costs. Making it payable fortnightly will go a long way to help parents cope with their day to day financial difficulties.”
The Queensland long day child care sector calls on the Government to further help ease the financial pain for working families by dropping its budget commitment to cut the cap on the Child Care Rebate and reverse its four year freeze on indexation.
The changes are yet to be passed by the Senate. The Australian Childcare Alliance estimates any working mother with a child in long day child care for four days will lose up to $2,248.00 over 4 years – the loss will never be caught up.
“Whilst families are really appreciative of the Government bringing in legislation to make the Child Care Rebate payable fortnightly – it really must not give with one hand and take away with the other,” Ms Bridge says.
“We truly believe it is every child’s right to access high quality early learning programs regardless of where they live or what the socioeconomic background of their parents.”
“We look forward to continuing to work with the Government, Opposition, the Greens and Independents to ensure families can continue to have equity of access and affordability to quality long day child care.”
Childcare Queensland is Australia’s largest state child care organisation with a majority membership of long-day care centres, caring for 115,000 children, communicating with over 210,000 parents and representing 15,000 staff.
Media Enquiries – Gwynn Bridge, CEO – Mobile 0418 764 779
Jessica Curtis – 0401 45 4 583 (Parent)
