Parenting , Stories
|June 25, 2018| 4mins
The way child care benefits are provided to parents are changing. The new Child Care Subsidy (CCS) comes into effect 2nd July 2018 and will replace the CCB and CCR with a single, means tested subsidy.
Into the future, the Child Care Subsidy will take into account (1) combined family income, (2) the amount of hours worked by parents each week and (3) the type of care sought.
CCS aims to simplify the current multi-payment system. The subsidy will now be paid directly to Child Care Service Providers under a Complying Written Agreement (CWA) which will hold Service Providers and parents more accountable. Major changes include:
-There is will be no cap for families earning less than $186,958
-There is a cap increase from $7,613/pa to $10,190/pa for families earning between $186,958 and $351,248
-Means test now combines income, hours worked (activity) and schooling type
-Subsidy now applies to fortnightly cycles
The CCS places the compliance required to receive the subsidy upon the individual families. MyGov is the central portal for communication regarding the means test.