Higher CCS rates for families with more than one child under five commences

Families with more than one child under five years of age who access early childhood education and care (ECEC) services will benefit from higher rates of Child Care Subsidy (CCS) for their younger children from today. 

The eldest child under five years of age in the family will be charged at the standard CCS rate while any younger children will get a higher subsidy.

Eligible higher rate children will receive a 30 per cent higher subsidy, up to a maximum of 95 per cent.

Families may be eligible if they:

• earn less than $354,305
• have more than one child aged five years or under in childcare.

Families already getting CCS don’t need to do anything to take advantage of the change. Services Australia will automatically increase the CCS for eligible second and younger children.

Information for providers about the changes is available here. Information is also available for families, including examples that show how the higher CCS works.

For families who are wanting to check how much their child care out of pocket costs might be under the change can access the CCS estimator on StartingBlocks.gov.au using the fees estimator.

To assist services in communicating the change with families a poster and fact sheet have been produced to display at services, along with prewritten social media and newsletter content.

Families with further questions should be directed to the Services Australia website.