Support to access child care

The Child Care Subsidy continues to support parents with the cost of child care while they’re working, training, studying or volunteering.

According to the September Quarter child care data released today:

  • The average hourly fee for all service types (excluding In Home Care) was $9.90 per child.
  • 87 per cent of services charged at or below the Australian Government’s hourly rate cap, which means that a family entitled to the maximum Child Care Subsidy would pay between $1.66 and $1.80 an hour per child at one of those providers.
  • Out-of-pocket costs were less than $5 per hour per child for the parents of 565,330 (72.4 per cent) children in centre based day care.
  • Out-of-pocket costs were less than $2 per hour per child for the parents of nearly 190,580 (24.4 per cent) children in centre based day care.

Minister for Education Dan Tehan said the Government provided almost $2.2 billion to support families with the cost of child care over the September quarter, an increase of 11.4 per cent.

“That means more money in the pockets of parents who are using child care while they work, study, learn, volunteer or transition to work,” Mr Tehan said.

“Since the introduction of the Child Care Subsidy fee growth has remained below the 10-year long term average. But what the data shows is that areas that had low hourly rates when the subsidy was introduced have seen fee increases approaching the Government’s hourly cap.”

/Public Release. View in full here.