To help with child care costs, the Australian Government offers two types of financial assistance: the Child Care Rebate and the Child Care Benefit.

What is the Child Care Rebate?

• From July 2011, you may choose to receive the Child Care Rebate on a weekly or fortnightly basis, paid either to your child care service as a fee reduction or directly to your bank account.
• Whether you receive a weekly or fortnightly Child Care Rebate payment depends on when your child care service submits your attendance data.
• You can still choose to receive the Child Care Rebate payments quarterly or annually as a lump sum directly to your bank account.
• If you currently receive the Child Care Rebate and would like to receive weekly or fortnightly payments for the Rebate for the next financial year, you should inform the Family Assistance Office by 17 June 2011.
• The Child Care Rebate pays up to 50% of your out of pocket expenses for child care up to an annual cap.
• It is NOT income tested, so you may be eligible to receive it even if you don’t get the Child Care Benefit from your fees.
• Your out of pocket child care costs are calculated after deducting any Child Care Benefit from your fees.
• Further information on the Child Care Rebate can be found on the mychild site.

Click here to visit the MyChild Website