Australian Government Family Assistance Office

Family Assistance Office

Factsheet - Child Care Benefit

Child Care Benefit is assistance to help with the cost of child care for families who use either approved or registered child care.

Can I get Child Care Benefit?

You can get Child Care Benefit if:
To receive Child Care Benefit for registered care, you and your partner must satisfy the work, training, study test.

Approved Care

Approved child care is care provided by a service provider that has been approved to receive Child Care Benefit payments on behalf of eligible families. Most long day care, family day care, before and after school care, vacation care, some occasional care and some in home care are approved child care providers. Your child care service can tell you if they are an approved provider.

To find an approved child care service and vacancies in your area, you can ring the Child Care Access Hotline on 1800 670 305 (TTY 1800 639 327) between 8am and 9pm AEST Monday to Friday.

Registered Care

Registered care is care for work related purposes that is provided by grandparents, relatives, friends or nannies who are registered as carers with the Family Assistance Office. Registered care may also be provided by individuals in some private preschools, kindergartens, some outside school hours care services and some occasional care centres. Carers or teachers in these services must be registered with the Family Assistance Office. Your carer can tell you if they are registered.

Eligible Hours

How much can I get?

Rates - Approved Care

In the recent Budget, the Government announced that there will no longer be a minimum Child Care Benefit rate for approved child care. However, instead of the rate reducing only down to a minimum rate, it will continue to reduce until the rate is zero. The income levels at which the payment cuts out completely will depend on the number of children you have using approved child care as shown in Table 2. This change will affect only high income families.

For families using approved care you are entitled to the maximum rate of Child Care Benefit if your annual family income is $36 573 or less.

Table 1: Maximum rate for non-school child
Number of children
in care		 Per week
(for 50 hours of care)		 Per hour for
each child
1 $173.50 $3.47
2 $362.63 $3.62

3

 $565.95 $3.77

Maximum rate for a school child is 85 percent of the maximum non-school child rate

From July 2008, families with income above the income limits will no longer receive the minimum rate of Child Care Benefit. They will be assessed as zero rate Child Care Benefit. This will enable eligible families to continue to receive the Child Care Tax Rebate.

Table 2: Child Care Benefit is not payable over the following income limits:
Number of Children
in care		 Income limits
1 $126 793
2 $131 457
3 148 452
add $28 028 for each extra child in care


Rate - Registered Care

Families using registered care are entitled to the following rate of Child Care Benefit.
 
Rate of Child Care Benefit for registered care for non-school child
Per hour for each child Maximum per week for each child
(for 50 hours a week)
$0.581 $29.05

The Child Care Benefit rate for registered care for a school child is 85 percent of the rate for non-school child.

Please Note: you cannot get the Child Care Tax Rebate for registered care.

Payment Options

You can choose to receive your Child Care Benefit for approved care in the following ways:

Please Note: You must claim Child Care Benefit as reduced fees if you want to receive your Child Care Tax Rebate as a quarterly payment even if you are assessed at the zero rate of Child Care Benefit. If you choose to receive your Child Care Benefit as a lump sum payment, any Child Care Tax Rebate will also be paid as a lump sum at the end of that year.

Registered Care

For families using registered care: