By now, you should have received a letter from Centrelink asking you to complete a streamlined online Child Care Subsidy assessment.
The online assessment will ask for you to provide:
- Your 2018‑19 family income estimate
- Your Activity details
- Confirmation of your child/children’s approved child care enrolment/s
These details can be provided through your Centrelink online account via myGov or through the Express Plus Centrelink mobile App.
What happens if I do not complete a Child Care Subsidy assessment or claim before 2 July 2018?
The new subsidy cannot be paid to your child care provider on your behalf if you do not take action. Without the subsidy, full fees will be charged.
Complete your Child Care Subsidy assessment now to ensure you don’t miss out on child care fee assistance from 2 July 2018.
Estimating Child Care Subsidy
You can get an estimate of what your family may be entitled to by entering your details into the Department of Human Services Payment and Service Finder.
Change to Withholding Amount
On 17 April 2018, the Minister for Education and Training announced that the Child Care Subsidy default withholding rate would be reduced from 10% to 5% for all families.
This means 5% of your weekly Child Care Subsidy entitlement will be withheld by the Government. Following reconciliation of your tax return at the end of the financial year, any amount owing to you will be paid as a lump sum by the Government. Further information on withholding is available here.
More information about individual subsidy rates and annual cap changes is available in the New Child Care Package brochure.
We’ll continue to keep you updated over the coming months on any changes you need to be aware of in the lead up to the new package commencing.
For more information, please visit our website.
