Important reminder: Transition Payment Grant offer deadline 1 July 2020

The Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) have issued a formal reminder to services to ensure that they have accepted and signed their Transition Payment Grant offer via DocuSign ahead of the 5pm (AEST) deadline on 1 July 2020. 

Completion of the documents on time will ensure that providers are eligible for the first payment which is expected to flow soon after transition back to the Child Care Subsidy copayment system on 13 July 2020.

The Transition Payment, which will be calculated as up to 25 per cent of revenues recorded in the reference period, or to the existing hourly rate cap, whichever is lower, will be paid weekly up to 27 September, with the last two payments in the period brought forward and paid as a lump sum. 

The payment is designed to help services mitigate against the loss of any families over the “free childcare” to “paid childcare” transition, and also for the loss of JobKeeper payments which are scheduled to cease a week after implementation. 

Services that wish to “opt out” of the Transition Payment scheme can do so, however those that do will still not be eligible for JobKeeper, but may be able to increase their fees. Application to “opt out” must be made to DESE. 

For those services that have yet to review and sign their Grant offer, support from DESE is available here. 

For those that have yet to receive an offer DESE advises services to check their spam/junk mail and if there is still no receipt to check that their details within the Child Care Subsidy System are correct and up to date. 

To review the communication from DESE please click here.