Guide
Child Care Subsidy, explained.
Written so you can read your own invoice by the end of it. No rates or percentages: those move and they are Services Australia's to publish, not ours.
Child Care Subsidy is a Commonwealth payment made through Services Australia that reduces what you pay for approved child care. It is not automatic and it is not something a centre can set up for you. The steps below are the actual mechanism, in the order they happen.
1. You claim, before your first day
The claim is yours to make through your Centrelink online account in myGov. It is assessed against your family income estimate for the year and your activity test, which covers work, study, training, volunteering and some other recognised activities for both parents in a couple. Do this early. Assessment takes time, and nothing can be paid until it is done.
2. We submit your enrolment, you confirm it
Once you accept a place at Sunbird, we submit what Services Australia calls a Complying Written Arrangement, which is the enrolment record they use. It then sits in your myGov account waiting for you to confirm it. This is the step families most often miss: until you confirm the enrolment yourself, in your own account, no subsidy can be paid on any session, even if your claim was approved weeks earlier.
3. The subsidy is paid to us, not to you
Once everything is active, Services Australia pays your subsidy directly to Sunbird against the sessions your child was booked into. It does not land in your bank account and it will not appear in your own transactions, which is why some families do not realise straight away that it is being paid at all.
4. Your invoice shows the gap
Every invoice we send shows three figures: the full daily fee, the subsidy paid on your behalf, and the difference, which is the gap fee. The gap is the number worth comparing between centres, not the sticker price, because two centres charging different daily fees can leave you paying a similar gap once the subsidy is applied, or a very different one. Bring a recent payslip or your income estimate to a tour and Renae will work through a real invoice with you rather than describe it in the abstract.
5. Absences are counted, not free
Subsidy is payable on a limited number of absence days each financial year without needing a reason, and a booked day your child does not attend still uses one of them, whether it is illness, a family holiday or anything else. Once that allowance is used, an absent day is charged at the full daily fee with no subsidy applied. We print your running absence count on every invoice so it is never a surprise at the end of the financial year.
What we will not do
We will not quote you a percentage or a worked dollar saving on this page, because your percentage depends on your family's income and activity, both of which Services Australia assesses and both of which can change during the year. A childcare website that prints a number is a website guessing at your household, and we would rather show you the real arithmetic on a real invoice at a tour.
Where to go for the actual numbers
Your Centrelink online account in myGov shows your current approved percentage and your remaining absence day balance. The Services Australia website carries the current income thresholds and activity test rules, and both change from time to time. If you would rather talk it through, call (07) 5550 0150 and ask for Renae.
See the daily fee by room or book a tour and bring your income estimate.