How much does child care cost?

The cost of child care for your family depends on:

• what type of child care you use
• how many days or hours a week your child attends child care
• how many children you have in child care
• whether you get government assistance with child care costs.

Child care costs can vary across services. For example, costs might depend on whether services:

• charge fees for days children are enrolled in care but absent
• charge fees and are closed for public holidays
• supply things like meals and nappies
• provide additional programs like music.

How to find out about child care costs

If you’re interested in a child care service, it’s best to contact the service directly to ask about fees.

If you get government assistance with child care costs, your out-of-pocket child care costs could be much lower than the fees you’re quoted.

What help can the Australian Government give you?

Depending on your situation, you might be eligible for one or both of these forms of Australian Government assistance with child care costs:

• Child Care Subsidy
• Additional Child Care Subsidy.

Child Care Subsidy

If you’re eligible, the Australian Government pays the Child Care Subsidy directly to your approved child care service to reduce the fees you pay.

Approved child care services

The following types of services are approved by the Australian Government. You must use one of these types of services to get the Child Care Subsidy:

• centre-based day care, including long day care and occasional day care
• family day care
• outside school hours care including vacation care
• in-home care.

The Australian Government pays different maximum hourly rates to these different types of approved services. You must also meet extra conditions to get payments for in-home care fees.

Who can get the Child Care Subsidy?

You might be eligible for the Child Care Subsidy if you:

• care for your child at least 2 nights a fortnight or 14% of the time
• are responsible for paying for your child’s care at an approved service
• meet the residence rules – that is, you’re an Australian citizen or have a permanent visa, a special category visa, or a certain type of temporary visa like a partner provisional or temporary protection type visa.

If you’re not sure whether you meet the residence rules, it’s a good idea to check. Call Services Australia on 136 150.

In addition, your child must be:

• up to date or catching up with their childhood immunisations (there are some exemptions)
• not attending secondary school, unless your child needs supervision.

If your child attends secondary school, you might be able to claim the Child Care Subsidy if your child is aged under 13 years or your child is aged 14-18 years and has a disability.

You can get the Child Care Subsidy if you’re a parent, step-parent, foster parent, grandparent or kinship carer.

How much Child Care Subsidy can you get?

The amount of subsidy you can get depends on:

• the type of child care you use
• your child’s age
• the number of children you have aged 5 years or under in child care
• your family’s income
• the amount of time you and your partner, if you have one, spend working, actively looking for work or studying.

If you’re eligible, you can get at least 72 hours of subsidised child care per child per fortnight.

If you care for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child, you can get 100 hours of subsidised child care per fortnight. If all the children in your care are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, you can get up to 100 hours per child per fortnight.

If you’re not sure whether you can get the Child Care Subsidy or how the Australian Government can help your family with child care costs, you can call Services Australia on 136 150. You can also visit Services Australia – Accessing child care or use the Centrelink Payment and Service Finder.

Additional Child Care Subsidy

The Additional Child Care Subsidy provides extra help with child care costs for some people who are eligible for the Child Care Subsidy.

Grandparents

You can get the Additional Child Care Subsidy if you’re a grandparent or great-grandparent with at least 65% care of one or more of your grandchildren. If you’re a step-grandparent or grandparent of one or more adopted children, you might also be eligible. You must also be getting an income support payment, like the Age Pension or JobSeeker Payment.

People transitioning to work

You can get the Additional Child Care Subsidy if your family income is below a certain amount and you’re also studying, actively looking for a job, working or training. Under most circumstances, you must have a job, a job plan or a participation plan.

You must also be getting one of these payments:

• a means-tested ABSTUDY payment
• Austudy
• Carer Payment
• Disability Support Pension
• Farm Household Allowance
• JobSeeker Payment
• Parenting Payment
• Special Benefit (if you can’t get a JobSeeker or Parenting Payment)
• Youth Allowance.

People experiencing temporary financial hardship

If something happens in your family that makes it harder to pay child care fees, you might be able to get the Additional Child Care Subsidy. The event must have happened in the last 6 months and can include:

• job loss, other than resignation or retirement
• loss of income because of things you can’t control, like serious illness or business failure
• severe damage to your home
• a major disaster that has negatively affected you
• death of a partner or child
• loss of child support because the paying parent has died
• family violence.

Vulnerable children

Children who are vulnerable or at risk of harm, abuse or neglect might be eligible for the Additional Child Care Subsidy. Children who are in foster care and formal kinship care might also be eligible. In this situation, child care providers are responsible for applying for this payment on behalf of families.

State and territory governments might offer extra help with child care costs. You can contact the child care service to find out whether extra help is available.