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Cheaper Child Care
From 10 July 2023, if your family earns under $530,000, you can get increased Child Care Subsidy (CCS).
The CCS percentage you’re entitled to depends on your family’s income.
The income limit to get the maximum CCS has increased. Families earning up to $80,000 can get an increased maximum CCS amount, from 85% to 90%.
If you earn over $80,000 you may get a subsidy starting from 90%. This will go down by 1% for each $5,000 of income your family earns. You’ll either get more subsidy or have no change to your entitlement.
If you have more than one child aged 5 or under, you can still get a higher rate for one or more of your children.
The low income limit for Additional Child Care Subsidy Transition to Work has also increased to $80,000.
If you already get CCS, you don’t need to do anything to get the increased rate. We’ll apply changes to your CCS automatically.
Child Care Subsidy activity test changes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
Child Care Subsidy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children changed on 10 July 2023. The changes mean they can get at least 36 hours of subsidy per fortnight, regardless of the amount of recognised activity you do.
Families will still pay an out-of-pocket cost to their child care service depending on their CCS percentage.
Read more about the activity test changes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
Paid Parental Leave scheme changes
The Paid Parental Leave scheme has changed. If your child’s birth or entry into care is before 1 July 2023, your family will be assessed under the old rules. That means your family may be able to get up to 18 weeks of Parental Leave Pay and up to 2 weeks of Dad and Partner Pay. This is regardless of when you choose to start your payment.
If your child’s birth or entry into care is on or after 1 July 2023, these changes will affect you.
On 1 July 2023, Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay combined into one payment. It increased from 90 days, or up to 18 weeks based on a 5 day work week, to 100 days or 20 weeks. We also changed the income test, work requirements and who can get it.
The changes also give families more flexibility to manage their work and care arrangements and encourage both parents to access the payment.
Single parents will be able to get the full amount of Parental Leave Pay.
If you have a partner, part of Parental Leave Pay will be reserved to share with them. The birth mother, or first adoptive parent to claim, must give approval to share any Parental Leave Pay days with the other parent.
If you’re sharing your Parental Leave Pay days with someone else, you can take up to 10 days at the same time.
There are more proposed changes to Parental Leave Pay which are subject to legislation passing. The proposed changes include the total Parental Leave Pay available to families increasing to 26 weeks by 2026. They also include changes to how you can share your payment with your partner if you have one. These changes will be to both:
- how much Parental Leave Pay will be reserved for your partner to use
- how much Parental Leave Pay you can take at the same time as your partner.
Special circumstance exceptions to the work test
You may now meet the work test for Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay. This is if your ability to work during the work test period was affected by any of the following:
- family and domestic violence
- a serious medical condition, for either you or an immediate family member you care for
- a natural disaster declared by the Commonwealth or a state or territory.