DESE clarifies position on “opting out” of Transition Payments

The Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) have clarified their position on whether early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are able to “opt out” of the Transition Payment funding scheme to raise their fees and if they were to “opt out” whether they would be still eligible for JobKeeper payments. 

The updates, included in their Frequently Asked Questions, also contain additional detail on other aspects of the Transition Payment such as when they will be paid and how often. 

The key updates are as follows:

• With respect to whether services are able to “opt out” of the Transition Payment scheme and then increase fees DESE states “If a child care provider wants to increase their fees, they must apply to the Department of Education, Skills and Employment to ‘opt out’ of receiving the Transition Payments.”

However, the response from DESE is explicit that a condition of receiving the payments is that fees must not be increased. 

• With respect to whether services are able to “opt out” of the Transition Payment scheme and still receive JobKeeper DESE states that “Providers may choose to opt out of receiving the Transition Payments, however, employees will not be able to receive JobKeeper.”

• With respect to the timing and intervals of the distribution of Transition Payments as yet DESE are not in a position to confirm but do highlight that any payments will be backdated to 13 July 2020. 

To read the full list of updated FAQs please click here. 

For a more comprehensive review of the transition back to child care subsidy, please see here.