Parents: Financial support for enrolments.
COVID-19: Childcare Centre Support
IMPORTANT: Service Closure
You will be notified by the state or territory regulatory authority if your service should be closed. If you voluntarily chose to or are advised to close your service by authorities, you must notify your state or territory regulatory authority within 24 hours.
If you are considering un-enrolling your child, please speak to your service about your options.
ACCS (temporary financial hardship) is available for families experiencing financial hardship and provides short-term support to families experiencing a significantly reduced ability to pay childcare fees, such as if the parent has lost income due to being unable to attend work.
Eligible families will receive a subsidy equal to the actual fee charged by the childcare service, up to 120% of the CCS hourly rate cap. In most cases, the full cost of childcare will be covered. It can be accessed for up to 13 weeks and eligible families are entitled to up to 100 hours of subsidised childcare per fortnight.
Applying for ACCS while keeping your child enrolled means that:
- If you are eligible, you will be entitled to a higher subsidy, meaning you as the parent will not have a gap fee to cover.
- If you are eligible, your child’s educators can be paid.
- There will be a service for your child to return to at the end of all this.
Steps to Apply for ACCS (Temporary Financial Hardship):
- Get ready to apply
a. To apply online, you need a myGov account linked to Centrelink. If you don’t have a myGov account or a Centrelink online account you’ll need to set them up. - Get your documents ready to apply
a. You’ll need to get some supporting documents ready to help answer some of the questions in the application. - Make your application
a. Sign in to myGov and go to Centrelink.
b. Select My Family from the menu
c. Select Child Care then temporary financial hardship.
d. Select Yes to confirm that you have read and understood the criteria you must meet to get Additional Child Care Subsidy.
e. Answer all the questions. Each screen has information to help you complete the application. This includes how to submit your supporting documents and any other forms you need to complete.
f. Review and submit your application. - After you apply
a. After you submit your claim online, you’ll get a receipt telling you the ID number of your application. This receipt will tell you what other documents you need to provide so your application can be assessed.
b. The result of your application will be sent to either your:
i. myGov Inbox
ii. Centrelink online account
iii. Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.
c. If you don’t get electronic letters, a letter will be sent in the mail.
This service is here to help and support you as much as they can, so please reach out.
Further information
- Visit the COVID-19: Childcare Resources for latest news updates, understanding your responsibilities are to parents & children during the COVID-19 pandemic, when you should close your service, and how to get financial advice & assistance, and other key childcare-related information.
- Please visit the Department of Education, Skills and Employment Frequently Asked Questions for more information for providers and services and Coronavirus (COVID-19) for the latest education and training sector fact sheets.
- The CCS Helpdesk is available to assist with information for services to help them manage the impacts on their business. Please email the CCS Helpdesk on ccshelpdesk@dese.gov.au, send in your query via an online form or call 1300 667 276 between 9.00 am — 5.00 pm (AEDST), Monday to Friday.
Please make sure that if you are a child care provider or service you have subscribed to receive communications from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment.
