The Department of Education and Training (the Department) has informed ACA that it will manually process a significant number of sessions in which the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) was not applied, for ongoing families who were absent from care during the transition period.
This decision was made following the concerns raised by ACA and the sector, that the new system had denied many families their eligible subsidy based on a technical glitch.
The former system had allowed families to continue receiving their subsidy payments for a limited period when their child was not attending their early learning service (ie. during family holidays, school holidays, etc). This arrangement was set to continue under the new CCS. However, as the new CCS system identified all families including ‘ongoing families’ as ‘new families’, some families who chose to take holidays over the July period did not receive the subsidy they were entitled to.
ACA raised this issue with the Department with a view to getting it resolved as soon as possible. The Department made it clear that it was not their intention for continuing families to receive less subsidy and be worse off under these circumstances as a result of the new CCS.
The government has informed ACA that they manually process a significant number of sessions in which the CCS was not applied for an absent session. These backpayments will be paid directly to the early learning service provider, and should be processed over the next week.
This quick resolution of this issue has demonstrated the power of ACA's proactive stance while regularly engaging with government, along with our strong relationships with our members.