Dear Families/carers,
On Monday 6th June 2020 the Australian Government and Education Minister announced that as of midnight 12th July 2020 free childcare will come to an end. Services will be required as of 13th July 2020 to begin charging and recovering the gap fee from families for any care provided as per the obligations under the Family Assistance Law.
What does this mean for families?
From 13th July 2020, The Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) will be applied to your account for any care provided following this date. Families are encouraged to check their details are up to date in their Centrelink online account through myGov. This includes their family income estimate for 2020-2021.
Families who were getting CCS before 6 April 2020, won’t need to do anything as long as they have remained eligible. Your CCS will start again automatically on 13th July 2020. If families are new to childcare they should lodge a claim for determination of CCS as soon as possible, If you continue to utilise our services following 13th July 2020 and your CCS approval has not been supplied to the service you will be required to pay full fees during this period.
Families who received CCS in 2018-2019 financial year and still haven’t confirmed their income must do so by 30th June 2020. If you do not do this your CCS will not start again automatically on 30th June.
Changes to allowable absences:
The initial 62 absence days per child will cease on 30th June 2020. There will be 42 initial absence days in 2020-2021 Financial year.
From 13th July 2020, families can receive CCS for absences up to seven days before a child’s first, and after a child’s last physical attendance at a service, where they have been booked in for care, for any of the following reasons:
• the child, the individual who cares for the child, the individual’s partner or another person with whom the child lives is ill (no medical certificate required if the child has not used 42 absence days)
• the service has changed ownership
• the usual service is closed and the child is attending a different service under the same provider
• a family tragedy (a major event including the death of an immediate family member) has occurred.
To assist us with forward planning and to ensure Child Care Subsidy is available for you on your return, can you please advise, before close of business this Friday 26th June 2020, what your early childhood needs will be from Monday 13th July 2020.
You will be invoiced for your care needs the following week and all parents are reminded that payment for care must be made in advance of the care being provided.
kind regards,
Veronica Klumper-Peters
Approved Provider, Erina kindy Pty Ltd