When we balance your Child Care Subsidy

What information we need to balance your CCS

The financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June. We balance CCS payments from mid-August.

We need all of the following to balance your CCS:

• your child’s attendance information, which we’ll get from your child care service
• your confirmed income
• your partner’s income, if you have one
• your ex-partner’s income, if you had one during the financial year.

If you’ve lodged your tax return, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will tell us your income. We usually get this within 28 days of you getting your Notice of Assessment from them.

It’s important to know we balance CCS and balance FTB separately.

If you separated from a partner

If you had a partner during the financial year and are now separated, we’ll still need their income to balance your payments. You don’t need to contact your ex-partner to find out if they are going to lodge a tax return. If you don’t know if they will be lodging, or if you don’t think your ex-partner will lodge their tax return by 30 June of the following financial year, call the Centrelink families line. We may balance your CCS based on an estimate of their income.

Otherwise, we’ll balance our payment once:

• your ex-partner lodges a tax return
• you tell us they don’t need to lodge by calling the Centrelink families line.

If we balance your payments using your ex-partners estimate, we’ll balance them again if they lodge a tax return later.

Read more about the time limits for confirming income for CCS.