BY HEJIRA CONVERY, KINDICARE

JUNE 21, 2023

We’re coming up to tax time, and although you might be more excited about 10 July, 2023 (when cheaper childcare starts) than 30 June (when the financial year ends), it is important to be on top of your Child Care Subsidy (CCS) admin.  

You’ll have to pay full childcare fees if your CCS stops (ouch!), and if the government pays you too much CCS, you may have to pay it back (double ouch!!). 

No-one needs this kind of financial pain, but you can easily avoid it by keeping your administrative affairs in order.  

Here’s what you need to do to ensure you get the CCS you’re eligible for: 

Confirm your family’s income after the financial year ends.  

To ensure your CCS keeps coming, you need to confirm your family’s income after the end of each tax year and within the time limit. 

This allows Centrelink to balance your CCS payments, which involves them comparing your family’s income estimate with the actual figure you brought in to check that you got the correct CCS for that financial year.  

Confirming your family’s income isn’t a big deal.  

You and your partner (if you have one) just need to lodge a tax return with the Australian Taxation Office or, alternatively, tell Centrelink that you don’t need to lodge a tax return and confirm your adjusted taxable income with them.  

Generally, you have one year after the financial year ends (on 30 June) to do this.  

Centrelink will send you a reminder, however, if you forget, or fail, to confirm your family’s income by the cut-off date, things soon get expensive! 

Your CCS will stop and you’ll start paying full fees for childcare. 

If you don’t confirm your family’s income within two years of the relevant tax year ending, then your CCS will cancel and you may end up owing Centrelink money.  

There are more details about this here, but the main takeaway is that you need to confirm your family’s 2021/2022 income by 30 June, 2023.  

If you don’t do this, your CCS will stop and go down to 0% from 10 July, 2023.  

Any Additional Child Care Subsidy you get will also stop.   

The government can re-start CCS payments pretty quickly once you confirm your family’s income, but in these costly times, every cent counts and there’s no point missing out on payments you’re eligible for.  

You also need to tell the government if your circumstances change.  

Throughout the year, you have an ongoing responsibility to tell Centrelink about certain changes to your family’s circumstances.  

For starters, they need to know about changes to you or your partner’s income and/or activity level.  

Centrelink uses these details to calculate your CCS entitlement, so if you get a pay rise, go from part-time to full-time work or start a TAFE course, your info will need updating.  

You also need to keep Centrelink up-to-date about changes to your relationship status, care arrangements and/or address to ensure they pay you the correct CCS; and if your child starts primary school or high school for the first time, this info should be shared, too.  

As well as being transparent about all these life changes, you also need to be timely.  

If you don’t tell Centrelink about changes to your circumstances within 14 days, your CCS may be affected; and if you get paid more than you should, based on incorrect or out-of-date info, you may have to pay this money back. 

A Centrelink debt isn’t great for the family budget, so it definitely pays to stay on top of things.  

You can check and update most details using your Centrelink online account via myGov or the Express Plus Centrelink app on your phone – though you will need to call the families line (on 136 150) if your relationship status has changed.  

That said, there are some things you don’t need to report.  

Specifically, Centrelink doesn’t need to know if the hours your child attends care change. Just make sure your family’s income estimate and activity levels stay current.  

Likewise, you don’t have to tell Centrelink if your child stops going to childcare, if you’re planning to send them to care again at some point. 

You also don’t have to tell the government if your child moves from one approved childcare service to another, though you do have to confirm their childcare enrolment details online, and Centrelink can’t actually pay your CCS to the new service before you do this. 

All in all, proactivity is much better than procrastination! 

A little CCS admin now will save you a lot of stress later, and if you’re struggling with Centrelink’s self-service account or app, there are Centrelink staff (yes, real live people!) who can help.  

Once you’ve got everything up-to-date for the 30 June deadline, you can go back to counting down the days till cheaper childcare begins, and if you’re looking for other ways to cut childcare costs, this KindiCare article may help. 

Happy EOFY everyone, and bring on 10 July!