Child Care Subsidy - CCS
Family eligibility and entitlement
Families must meet eligibility criteria to get Child Care Subsidy (CCS). The amount of CCS a family can get depends on their circumstances.
Who can get CCS?
Families must meet eligibility criteria to get CCS.
Parents must:
care for their child at least 2 nights per fortnight or have 14% share of care
be liable for child care fees at an approved early childhood education care service
meet residency requirements.
Their child must:
meet immunisation requirements
not be attending secondary school (unless an exemption applies)
be 13 or under (except in certain circumstances).
If a child doesn’t attend a session of care at least once in 26 consecutive weeks, they will stop being eligible for CCS. If a child starts to attend care again, a family can make a new claim for CCS.
Families can learn more about eligibility for CCS on the Services Australia website.
How much CCS can a family get?
The amount of CCS a family can get depends on their circumstances.
Family income
Services Australia works out a family’s CCS percentage based on their family income estimate.
A family’s CCS percentage is the amount the government will subsidise. It will apply to the hourly fee or the relevant hourly rate cap, whichever is lower.
Number of children in care
Families with more than one child aged 5 or under in care may get a higher subsidy for their second child and younger children. Siblings do not need to attend the same service to get the higher subsidy.
The rates for each child are worked out using two separate income tests.
The ‘standard rate child’ is usually the eldest CCS eligible child aged 5 or under. The standard rate child will get the standard CCS rates.
The ‘higher rate child’ is the second and any younger children aged 5 or under. The higher rate for second and younger children is calculated using the rates for second and younger children.
The higher subsidy for second and younger children ends when a family earns $365,611 or more.
Activity level
The hours of subsidised care a family can get each fortnight depends on their activity level. The higher the level of activity, the more hours of subsidised care families can get.
Services Australia looks at both parents’ activity level. They use the parent with the lower activity level to determine a family’s hours of subsidised care.
Families need to do a recognised activity to get CCS. Exemptions apply for parents who cannot meet activity test requirements.
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children
Families can get at least 36 hours of subsidised care per fortnight for each Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander child in their care. This is regardless of their family’s activity level.
Families should tell Services Australia that they have an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander child in their care if they would like to get at least 36 hours of subsidised care.
Families can call Services Australia on the Centrelink families line to let them know a child in their care is an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person. It is voluntary to tell Services Australia this.
Families may get more than 36 hours of CCS per fortnight based on their circumstances and the amount of recognised activity they do.
Families do not need to do anything if they already get more than 36 hours of subsidy based on their circumstances.
Families must still pay the gap fee.
Learn more about the activity test for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children.
Additional Child Care Subsidy - ACCS
About the child wellbeing subsidy
Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) child wellbeing provides help with the cost of early childhood education and care. It’s for families who care for a child at risk of serious abuse or neglect. This page outlines eligibility criteria, subsidy amount and time limits.
Eligibility
The child wellbeing subsidy helps children at risk of serious abuse or neglect.
Families must meet criteria to get the subsidy. The parent or carer must:
be eligible for Child Care Subsidy (CCS)
care for a child who is at risk of serious abuse or neglect.
In rare cases, you may identify a child at risk whose parent or carer is not eligible for CCS. If this happens, you – the provider – may be able to get the subsidy on behalf of the child. We provide more information about what to do in this scenario on our establishing eligibility page.
Subsidy amount
Eligible families will get up to 100 hours of subsidised care per fortnight.
Families will also get the lower of either:
100% of the fee charged where it’s equal to or below the hourly rate cap
up to 120% of the hourly rate cap where the fee charged is above the hourly rate cap.
In most cases, this will cover the full cost of care.
However, if a child uses more than 100 hours of care per fortnight or you charge fees above the hourly rate cap, the family may have to pay a fee.
Families may be able to get more subsidised hours and/or an increased subsidy rate in exceptional circumstances.
Exceptional circumstances:
are unexpected and well outside of a family’s regular arrangements
have an out of the ordinary impact on a family
are generally temporary or time-limited
do not include where an individual is routinely working longer hours.
Families can apply to Services Australia directly for more subsidised hours. Families should call the Centrelink families line to discuss their circumstances. Services Australia assesses all exceptional circumstances on a case-by-case basis.
Providers can email childwellbeing@education.gov.au on behalf of a family to request an increased subsidy rate, or to request more subsidised hours for a child on a provider eligible arrangement.
Time limits
You can give a family immediate access to ACCS child wellbeing with a certificate for up to 6 weeks, per child, each year.
If you think a family requires continued access to the subsidy after 6 weeks, you can apply for determinations for longer periods.
For most children, you can apply for a determination for up to 13 weeks at a time.
You can apply for a determination of up to 52 weeks at a time if the child is:
in formal foster care
in a formal kinship care arrangement
on a long-term protection order.