Child care providers can choose to offer a discounted fee to educators or cooks they employ whose children are enrolled at one of their services. The discount will not affect the employee’s Child Care Subsidy (CCS) entitlement. This measure will help providers attract and retain their early childhood workforce.
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Who can I offer a discount to?
You can offer discounts to employees who:
- are employed, contracted or engaged as an educator, early childhood teacher or cook
- are working at a Centre Based Day Care or Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) service, and
- have a child enrolled in an early childhood education and care service where they work or that you own.
A centre director or OSHC coordinator is considered an educator or early childhood teacher and is eligible for a discount if they:
- have an early childhood education and care qualification, and
- are working at a service.
This measure was introduced on 24 January 2022. Providers can offer the discount to cooks from 1 January 2023.
How much can I discount?
It’s up to you how much you want to discount. The employee must still pay at least 5% of the gap fee.
What is the gap fee?
Families who get CCS must make a co-contribution to their child care fees. They do this by paying the difference between your fee and the CCS amount. This is known as the gap fee.
CCS is usually calculated on the actual fee a family is charged, after any discounts are applied. This change allows discounts to be applied for employees after CCS has been applied.
Do I have to offer discounts?
You do not have to offer discounts. The measure is optional.
How do I report the discount?
Usually, if you offer a family a discount, you must report the discounted fee in session reports. The family’s CCS is then calculated based on the discounted fee.
You can now offer a discount to employees and report the full fee. This will ensure the employee’s CCS entitlement is not affected.
Example
Sangeetha is an educator at a Centre Based Day Care service. Her average family income is $110,000 and her family’s CCS rate is 71.67%.
Sangeetha’s child attends 3 days at the same service. The service charges a daily fee of $106.50 for a 10-hour session.
Sangeetha’s total weekly fee comes to $319.50. After CCS is applied, the service charges her a gap fee of $90.51 per week.
The service can offer Sangeetha a discount on her gap fee. She must pay at least 5% of the gap fee.
If the service offers a discount of $20 per session of care, Sangeetha’s gap fee would be $30.51 per week.