Gap Fee – Child Care Subsidy News & Updates

Support payments

ECEC Flood Support Payments of $10,000 are available to services in flood-affected regions that close for more than 7 days due to flooding. If your service is located in an eligible region, you will receive an offer before 18 March. Services must meet the following conditions to be eligible for the payment:

be located in an LAE-declared region after 23 February

close for more than 7 days due to flooding – this could be due to physical damage to buildings, staff shortages or school closures

waive the gap fee for families for the duration of the flood-related closure

agree to provide priority access to families impacted by flooding, for example if a family relocates temporarily but wishes to resume their enrolment in the future.

Services that need further support can apply for a Community Child Care Fund (CCCF) Special Circumstances grant. Applicants should apply for a CCCF grant after an event has occurred and they have accessed other disaster support.

Absences

Children who live, or attend a service, in an LAE-declared region will get extra allowable absences for the duration of the LAE. They will be automatically applied in the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) System shortly.

This means families won’t have to use any of their 52 allowable absences during the LAE.

Other support

The Australian Government provides payments and help for people affected by natural disasters. Find out if you’re eligible for support on the Services Australia website.

The NSW and Queensland Governments have support for individuals and businesses impacted by a natural disaster. Find out if you’re eligible for support on your state government website:

From 24 January 2022, child care providers can choose to offer a discounted fee to employees with children enrolled at one of their services.

The discount will not affect the employee’s Child Care Subsidy (CCS) entitlement. This measure will support providers to attract and retain their early childhood workforce.

Who can get a discount?

Providers can offer discounts to employees who:

are employed, contracted or engaged as an educator or early childhood teacher, and
are working at a Centre Based Day Care or Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) service, and
have a child enrolled in an early childhood education and care service where they work or is owned by their provider.

A centre director or OSHC coordinator who has an early childhood education and care qualification and is working at a service would be considered an educator or early childhood teacher and be eligible for a discount.

How much can a provider discount?

It’s up to a provider how much they want to discount. The employee must still pay at least 5% of the gap fee.

What is the gap fee?

Families who get CCS must make a co-contribution to their child care fees. They do this by paying the difference between the provider’s fee and the CCS amount. This is known as the gap fee.

CCS is usually calculated on the actual fee a family is charged, after any discounts are applied. This change allows discounts to be applied for employees after CCS has been applied.

Do providers have to offer discounts?

Providers do not have to offer discounts. The measure is optional.

What do providers have to do?

Usually, if a provider offers a family a discount, the provider must report the discounted fee in session reports. The family’s CCS is then calculated based on the discounted fee.

From 24 January 2022, providers can offer a discount to employees and report the full fee. This will ensure the employee’s CCS entitlement is not affected.

Example – how it works

Katherine is an educator at a Centre Based Day Care service. Her average family income is $110,000 and her family’s CCS rate is 71.67%.

Katherine’s child attends 3 days at the same service. The service charges a daily fee of $106.50 for a 10-hour session.

Katherine’s total weekly fee comes to $319.50 ($106.50 x 3). After CCS is applied, the service charges her a gap fee of $90.51 ($319.50 – $319.50 x 71.67%) per week.

From 24 January 2022, the service can offer Katherine a discount on her gap fee. She must pay at least 5% of the gap fee.

If the service offers a discount of $20 per session of care, Katherine’s gap fee would be $30.51 per week.

If the service offers a discount of $30 per session of care, Katherine’s gap fee would be $4.53 ($90.51 x 5%) per week instead of $0.51 ($90.51 – $30×3) as she must pay at least 5% of the gap fee.