Child Care Subsidy Changes: What You Need To Know

Changes to the Child Care Subsidy start today, so we’ve put together a handy guide so you know exactly what you need to do and what’s changing.

There have already been some major changes to child care support, with the annual cap for working families removed from December 10, 2021. And now more Child Care Subsidy (CCS) changes are on the way for around 250,000 Aussie families. On average, these families will be more than $2,200 better off, each year.

Changes to the Child Care Subsidy 2022

From March 7, 2022 families with more than one child aged five or under in care will get a higher subsidy for their second and younger kids.

Your family may be eligible if you:

Earn less than $354,305
Have more than one child aged five or under in child care

Your children who are eligible for the higher rate will get a 30% higher subsidy, up to a maximum of 95%.

You’ll still keep getting your income tested CCS rate for all of your children.

Who will get the higher Child Care Subsidy rate?

Services Australia will assess all of the children in your family, identify the ‘standard’ rate child (usually the eldest CCS-eligible child aged five or under), and then identify the children who’ll get the higher rate.

If you’re already getting CCD, you don’t need to do anything, your CCS will automatically increase for the eligible children in your family.

What will it mean for my family?

It depends on what your family is earning, but here’s a couple of examples:

If your family is earning $110,000 a year and has two kids in care for four days a week, you’ll be around $100 a week better off.
If your family is earning $80,000 with two kids in child care, you’ll save about $54 a week.
A family earning $140,000 a year will be about $125 a week better off.

Want to know more about the changes to the Child Care Subsidy? Head to Services Australia.

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66 Comments

- - meedee said
  - 12 Aug 2024
    11:20 am
And now the carers are getting 15% pay increases so odds on fees will go up again in the next year

- - Zmijka86 said
  - 25 Apr 2022
    8:19 am
Unfortunately that is not going to change much in our situation

- - mom486387 said
  - 04 Apr 2022
    9:38 am
This is so good to hear, it’s so good for kids to have the social setting of child care

- - mom461384 said
  - 28 Mar 2022
    11:19 pm
With childcare being so expensive. It’s going to help

- - tessie said
  - 28 Mar 2022
    1:33 pm
Sometimes you need an expert to sort through all the wording to explain to you in simple terms what it means. Naturally if you have more children you should get more of an allowance, not because the child is of a certain age. It’s making out that children of a certain age are worth more than the ones under that age.

- - Min said
  - 28 Mar 2022
    12:06 pm
Any help with childcare/out-of-school care is great for all families but this age limit of 5 and under needs to be revisited. I cannot afford to pay out-of-school care and vacation care fees and still be expected to work. If my child cannot go to school him/her self then that’s when subsidy needs to remain in place.

- - rovermum said
  - 28 Mar 2022
    11:17 am
I didn’t put my child into childcare but was able to call on my family and a flexible work arrangement to avoid it.

- - mummy_moo_moo said
  - 26 Mar 2022
    12:37 am
I only have 1 child so this doesn’t affect me, but I think that it’s great they have reviewed this and made some changes. I think the childcare system and their prices may need to be looked at further though.

- - mom146810 said
  - 24 Mar 2022
    9:31 pm
Nice to have help but there should be no age limit like under 5 etc instead it should be based on number of kids like how many kids a family has and then the higher subsidy should be for those families.

- - mom468034 said
  - 24 Mar 2022
    9:24 am
Any help is welcome help. I think it would be good to extend the age so that it could help with OSHC fees too say up to a certain age? The age cut off at 5 is kinda hard.
- Min replied
  
  28 Mar 2022 , 12:03 pm
  I completely agree. My 5YO is going to be subsidised for half the year based on this. He turns 6 in July and it will go back to normal/full fees. They really need to revisit the age gap for out of school care
- - Zmijka86 said
  - 23 Mar 2022
    7:47 am
Doesn’t apply to our situation.

- - mom223151 said
  - 21 Mar 2022
    9:38 pm
It’s not bad but not the best. About time that had an increase.

- - tessie said
  - 13 Mar 2022
    3:48 pm
We never got any subsidy for our boys when they were going to school.

- - mom324778 said
  - 13 Mar 2022
    11:27 am
Childcare fees are so confusing thanks for this article it helps a little

- - mom265671 said
  - 08 Mar 2022
    11:34 pm
This all just is confusing to me from the beginning!

- - Jessica said
  - 08 Mar 2022
    8:36 pm
I’m really looking forward to this increase for my second child!

- - mom480417 said
  - 08 Mar 2022
    4:29 pm
I didn’t send my son to childcare and not even planning to send my daughter. Various reasons to it but one of the reasons is things are expensive and the subsidy that you get is not much.

- - Tamarad said
  - 07 Mar 2022
    11:41 pm
Fantastic. This is going to help a lot of families out. As a mum who’s just returned to work after having a baby the CCS is great and means I’m not working just to pay for fees.

- - Mumoftwo said
  - 07 Mar 2022
    10:57 pm
This will help a lot of families especially mine.

- - jekalouise88 said
  - 07 Mar 2022
    9:41 pm
I love the new changes and I love that the government is finding ways to make childcare a bit more accessible, but I feel they should apply for all kids using CCS not just kids 5 and under! As a working mama I have three kids at school who use before and after care, which costs about the same as my daughter at daycare… once bubs arrives I’ll receive an extra subsidy for bubs which is fantastic, but it’s the older kids oshc which is the killer!!
- jekalouise88 replied
  
  07 Mar 2022 , 9:42 pm
  Oh no the picture of my little monkeys didn’t upload- here they are!