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Enhanced Child Care Subsidy from July 2022

From July 2022, families will receive more support from the Australian Government with the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) set to be increased for families with multiple children under the age of 6, and the annual cap removed.

Overview

From July 2022, families will receive more support from the Australian Government with the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) set to be increased for families with multiple children under the age of 6. These changes are subject to the passage of legislation.

The changes include:

  • increasing the Child Care Subsidy for families with more than one child in care under the age of 6, and
  • removing the annual cap.

These measures will lower out-of-pocket costs for more than 250,000 families in 2022–23, with the Australian Government investing an additional $1.7 billion through CCS.

Families with children under 6 face higher child care costs and these are compounded where a family has more than one child. Thanks to the subsidy increase, families with multiple children aged under 6 in care will pay less in child care fees.

Increased subsidy for families with multiple children

From July 2022, the Australian Government will increase a family’s CCS if they:

  • earn under $353,680 (2020–21), and
  • have more than one child aged under 6 in care.

The Australian Government will increase the subsidy by 30% (capped at 95%) for their second child and subsequent children aged under 6 in care.

The increased subsidy will not apply to In Home Care sessions as IHC is subsidised on a family rather than per child basis.

Removing the annual cap

Families earning more than $189,390 (2020–21) now have an annual subsidy cap of $10,560 per child each financial year.

From July 2022, the Australian Government will remove this annual cap.

For more information please visit the official Enhanced Child Care Subsidy information page.

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CCS News

Families affected by COVID-19 can apply for extra Child Care Subsidy (CCS) hours

Families who are doing less work, study or other recognised activity due to COVID-19 may be able to apply for more Child Care Subsidy (CCS) hours.

Families affected by COVID-19 may get up to 100 hours of CCS per fortnight for up to 12 weeks.

If you’re eligible, you can access extra hours between 13 July and 4 October 2020. You can apply any time before 4 October but the government can only back pay you up to 28 days.

It’s important you keep your activity test details up to date so the government can give you the right rate of CCS. Check they’re correct before applying for extra hours.

Who can get extra hours
You can get extra CCS hours if your family’s recognised activity level has gone down because of COVID-19. All of the following must also apply:

  • you don’t already have access to 100 hours of CCS
  • between 13 January and 22 March 2020, you were doing more than 16 hours of recognised activity per fortnight
  • now, you’re doing 8 or more hours of recognised activity per fortnight.

You can’t get extra hours if you’ve chosen to do less activity and this isn’t because of COVID-19.

What you need to do
You can apply for extra hours using your Centrelink online account through myGov. Select My Family from the menu, then Child care.

You can also use the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.