Author: CCSC

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CCS News

If you don’t confirm your 2018–19 income by 31 March, you’ll lose your Child Care Subsidy

Did you get Child Care Subsidy for 2018-19?

If you got Child Care Subsidy (CCS) for the 2018-19 financial year, you must confirm your income. If you haven’t, do it now.

If you don’t confirm your income by 31 March 2021, your CCS will reduce to 0%. This means you’ll need to pay full fees when you access child care.

The deadline for confirming your income was extended from 30 June 2020 to 31 March 2021 because of COVID-19.

If you confirm your income after 31 March 2021 we can start your CCS again.

But if there’s a gap between your CCS stopping and starting again, you’ll miss out on CCS for that time.

Letters were sent to families in February 2021 asking them to confirm their income.

How to confirm your income

You don’t need to call or visit Services Australia to confirm your income.

You need to either:

  • lodge your tax return with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
  • tell us you don’t need to lodge one and confirm your income online.

If you have a partner, they’ll need to do this too. If you separated during the year, Services Australia will also need your ex-partner’s income.

To check if you need to lodge a return, use the Do I need to lodge a tax return? tool on ato.gov.au.

If you’ve lodged your tax return, the ATO will send Services Australia your income information. Services Australia usually get this within 28 days from when you get your Notice of Assessment.

If you or your partner don’t need to lodge a tax return, you need to let Services Australia know.

You must do this, even if you’ve told the ATO that you don’t need to lodge. You can do this and confirm your income for the year using either your:

  • Centrelink online account through myGov
  • Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.

Where to find more information

For more information about Child Care Subsidy go to servicesaustralia.gov.au/ccstimelimits.

Categories
CCS Exemption

Families who do not meet the CCS activity test but are eligible for the preschool exemption can still get CCS

What is the ‘preschool exemption’ to the activity test?
Families who do not meet and are not otherwise exempt from the Child Care Subsidy activity test will be entitled to 36 hours of subsidised care per fortnight to support their preschool-aged child to attend a preschool program at a Centre Based Day Care service.

When does the preschool exemption apply?
This exemption applies if a family meets the following criteria: 

  • they are eligible for Child Care Subsidy 
  • they are not otherwise exempt from the activity test 
  • it is the year before their child starts primary school, and 
  • their child attends a preschool program at a Centre Based Day Care service. 

This exemption only applies to preschool-aged children. It does not apply to other children in the same family. For the purpose of the Child Care Subsidy preschool exemption, a preschool aged child is a child in the year before their first year of primary school. States and territories refer to the first year of primary school differently (see the Services Australia website for details).

Families should provide Centrelink with their child’s expected school start date through myGov or the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. Centrelink will use this information to work out if the exemption applies. 

For more information, please refer to the preschool exemption fact sheet. 

Categories
ACCS

ACCS (child wellbeing) certificates Q&A for child care providers

Do I need to issue a new certificate for Additional Child Care Subsidy (child wellbeing) each 12-month period?

Yes. Once a child has received Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) (child wellbeing) for continuous periods over 12 months, you need to issue a new certificate.

The Child Care Subsidy System (CCSS) will not allow you to apply for a further determination if the child has received ACCS (child wellbeing) for continuous periods over 12 months and a new certificate is not issued. If the child remains ‘at risk’ after six weeks on the certificate, you will then need to apply for further 13-week period determinations.

For example:

Billy attends Pink Unicorn Child Care Service and a certificate was issued for six weeks on 8 July 2019 because he was assessed as being ‘at risk’. Billy has remained on 13-week determinations continuously since then (inclusive of the Relief Package period). On 18 May 2020, Services Australia made a determination for another 13 weeks for Billy which ceases on 16 August 2020. If Billy is still considered to be ‘at risk’, the service will need to issue a new six-week certificate, from 17 August 2020, before another determination can be given.

Does a child need to use the full six weeks of a certificate before I can apply for a determination?

Yes. When you apply for a determination, the system will check to see if the child has been on a certificate for six weeks in the previous 12 months.

If the child has not been on a certificate for six weeks in the last 12 months, you will need to issue a certificate for the remaining balance of the six weeks before you can apply for a determination.

For example:

Orange Monkey Child Care Centre issued Janie a certificate for three weeks because she was assessed ‘at risk’ when she started at the service on 8 July 2019. Janie continued to be assessed as ‘at risk’ so the service applied for a determination from Services Australia for 13 weeks commencing 29 July 2019. The system checked to see if Janie had been on a certificate for six weeks in the previous 12 months. In this case, only three weeks of the certificate was used. The service must issue a certificate for the remaining balance of the six weeks before they can apply for a determination.