Latest news with #ChildCareSubsidy
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Centrelink's warning for thousands over cash boost set to be delivered in weeks
For those of you who don't celebrate it, the new financial year is upon us, running from 1 July to 30 June. We've ticked over from 2024-2025 to 2025-2026. That means it's time for Services Australia to check that families got the right amount of financial support over the past year, which is a process called balancing. Balancing happens after the financial year ends on 30 June. We compare your estimated income with your actual income. For many families, this check can mean a helpful top-up or supplement. Others might see no change, or in some cases, a debt to repay. It's important to know that Family Tax Benefit (FTB) and Child Care Subsidy (CCS) are balanced separately, and each one follows its own process. RELATED Centrelink issues ATO tax refund warning: 'Repay it' Common neighbour problem plaguing Aussie houses Centrelink issues ATO alert as Aussies submit their tax returns What families need to do For most families, we need you to confirm your income before we can balance your payments. You can do this by either lodging a tax return with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) or by telling us you don't need to lodge one. If you have a partner, they will need to lodge a tax return, or you will need to tell us they don't need to as well. If you or your partner are not required to lodge a tax return, you can confirm your income using your Express Plus Centrelink mobile app, or Centrelink online account through myGov. Just remember, if you get both payments, you'll still need to confirm your income to balance your CCS, even if you didn't need to do anything for your FTB balancing to long does it take? We start balancing FTB from July and CCS from mid-August. CCS balancing is later, as we need to get information from childcare providers before we can get started. After you lodge your tax return, the ATO will confirm your income for the financial year with us. This might not happen straight away. It can take up to 28 days for the ATO to give us this information. Don't ring to check on how it's going, you can track the progress of your balancing in your Express Plus Centrelink mobile app. You can also track your CCS balancing using your online account through myGov. What happens if I've separated from my partner? If you separated during the year, we can balance your FTB after you confirm your income. We'll use the income estimate provided for your ex-partner if they haven't lodged a tax return yet. You don't have to contact them. If you get CCS, we still need to confirm your ex-partner's income. You don't need to contact your ex-partner for these details. Call us on 136 150 to confirm this. 'Uh oh, I think I'm going to get a debt' Don't panic! We know things can change over the year. You'll get a letter explaining your balancing outcome either through your myGov inbox or in the mail. We'll let you know your options if you need to pay money back. If you owe Services Australia or the ATO any money, as part of the balancing process, we can recover debts from any FTB top-ups and supplements to reduce what you owe. We can do this even if you have a repayment arrangement in place. Please talk to us if you're experiencing financial hardship or worried about paying back a debt. We can work with you to set up a repayment plan for your circumstances. How to avoid a debt next year There are things you can do throughout the year to help get the right payments and reduce your chance of getting a debt at tax time. You should make sure your family income estimate and other details are always up to date, you can do this anytime things change during the year. You can use your online account to select the right FTB payment choice for your situation. You may choose to get all, part or none of your payment fortnightly. We'll then pay any other FTB you're entitled to when we balance your payments. Services Australia withholds 5% of your CCS to help reduce the likelihood of you getting an overpayment at the end of the financial year. You can increase this percentage through your online account to an amount that suits you. By doing this, you can boost your chances of getting a top-up when we balance your payments next tax time.
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Centrelink issues ATO tax refund warning: ‘Repay it'
Australian taxpayers waiting for tax refunds to hit their bank accounts have been warned about one reason it might be lower than expected. Services Australia has reminded Aussies that it can use your tax refund to repay any debts owed to it. Services Australia, which is the body in charge of Centrelink, is legally obligated to recover money that's owed to it. That means it will sometimes use your tax refund to reduce the amount you owe. 'If you have a debt with us at tax time, we may use your tax refund to repay it,' Services Australia said. 'We may do this if you're not actively making repayments towards your debt or you don't have a repayment arrangement in place.' RELATED Centrelink alert for 240,000 Aussie families as some see popular payment stopped ATO tax return warning for 2 million Aussies over dangerous act Warning for working from home Aussies over common practice Services Australia said it could use your tax refund to repay your debt at tax time if you receive a Family Tax Benefit or Child Care Subsidy, you're a former customer and not making any repayments on your debt, or you have an overdue Child Support debt. It will avoid recovering debts with tax return refunds if your debt repayments have been paused due to a disaster or emergency event, or a pending formal review. Services Australia said it will check for overpayments or existing Centrelink debts when it balances your Family Tax Benefit and Child Care Subsidy. Services Australia starts balancing Family Tax Benefit in July and Child Care Subsidy in mid-August. It will then recover any overpayments or existing debts you owe before paying you any top ups, Family Tax Benefit supplements or lump sums. For people who owe child support, or have been overpaid child support, it will use a tax refund to pay any outstanding amounts directly. It has urged parents who would experience hardship to contact it on the Child Support enquiry line before they lodge their tax returns. Former Centrelink recipients who haven't made an arrangement to repay their debt will be sent a letter if money is taken from their tax refund. It will also appear on your Notice of Assessment from the ATO as a 'Credit Offset to Centrelink'. You can find out more about repaying money owed to Centrelink in to access your portfolio
The Age
12-07-2025
- General
- The Age
The care fracture: how shocking abuse allegations have hit mothers
Writing on the professional women's website Women's Agenda this week, The Parenthood chief executive Georgie Dent also named this mother-blame phenomenon: 'In this moment of national grief and reckoning, the last thing families need is guilt piled on top of their fear and distress,' she wrote. 'And yet, some are using this crisis to argue that parents (but mostly mums) should just stay home – as if that's a real or simple choice for most families.' The blame and shame comments have been posted online on news articles about the abuse allegations, and in parenting forums on social media. On the longstanding parenting site Kidspot, columnist Lauren Robinson said she also uses childcare and noted: 'I'm sick of seeing that decision twisted into some suggestion of parental neglect.' Dr Emily Musgrove, resident psychologist on the hit podcast The Imperfects, on Thursday alluded to the resurfacing of the similarly enduring myth 'that the mum is available and responsible at all times'. 'My sense is we [mothers in this generation] are getting so much more exposed to guilt because we are violating this idealised mother role,' she said. Loading Numbers of women working are at a record high, as are numbers of children in early learning centres, supported by government policies encouraging women back to work. That backward ideas about working mothers have re-emerged following childcare abuse allegations has troubled advocates, especially as policies now exist to also support fathers to participate in childcare. The proportion of Australians grappling with juggling work and family care is not insignificant. In the March quarter of 2025, approximately 1,444,410 children from 1,015,790 families in Australia were using Child Care Subsidy (CCS)-approved care. These children attended an average of 27.5 hours of care per week. Data from the Australian Institute of Family Studies shows that as of the March quarter last year, 48 per cent of one-year-olds were enrolled in CCS-approved childcare services, up from 39 per cent in 2015. 'We are seeing an increasing proportion of new mothers remaining in employment after childbirth, with the proportion of employed mothers of an under-one-year-old increasing from 30 per cent in 1991 to 57 per cent in 2021,' a spokeswoman says. But academics including Melbourne University sociology professor Leah Ruppanner say the psychological burden of the tension between government policies – and economic conditions – that encourage both parents to work soon after having babies is still assigned primarily to mothers. Ruppanner's book, Drained, on women as the disproportionate mental load-bearers of parenting comes out next year. Anxiety triggered by disturbing childcare-abuse news is likely to also be felt by fathers, she said, but social pressure and responsibility for care of young children is still squarely on women. 'Mothers have an incredible amount of guilt, especially around whether they're being 'good' mothers, and now the energy of thinking about safety is just going to add one more layer to the mental load,' she says. 'We've been told women are solely responsible for the future of their children so you'd better not mess it up ... People think [mothers] have these open choices, but they don't. They're constrained economically, attitudinally.' Though she gains great satisfaction from her career as a registered psychologist south-west of Sydney, Alysha-Leigh Femeli says she has felt this tension between leaving young children in care – even during 'a very slow transition' – and the fulfilment of re-engaging in her work. She has treated families in the perinatal period for 13 years and is told by clients that they are so distressed by the recent child abuse allegations they are questioning if they should keep working. It is a sentiment voiced by one distressed mother interviewed on TV as she collected her toddler from Creative Gardens, the childcare centre at which alleged offender Joshua Dale Brown worked in south-western Melbourne. As the Victorian Department of Health prepared to text families of 1200 children aged five months to two years old, urging them to arrange STI tests for their babies and toddlers, the mother said she was questioning whether she should work. Loading Femeli says this is not an uncommon response. 'Women are terrified, really terrified, and I've had people wondering whether they should just pull their kids out of care because they feel so scared – this feels like something they hadn't even anticipated as an option. 'For a lot of women, working is a really important part of caring for their mental health,' she says. To have a break from [constantly caring for young children] can also be 'an important part of making sure they are wonderful mothers,' she says. Even so, 'I found it really hard going back to work, I had families [to see] but I felt heartbroken at the idea I would leave my babies … 'But I would always come back from work feeling really rejuvenated, like I'd gotten to use my brain; it was important for me to do be able to do that.' Femeli, a member of the Australian Association of Psychologists, describes the 'spike of anxiety' mothers may already feel when returning to work, and says it is driven by stubborn gender stereotypes. 'There is still a societal expectation that women will be the primary caregivers regardless of how much they are working: so you are going to 'fail' somewhere, either your employers or your responsibilities as a caregiver,' she says. 'I don't think I have a perinatal client who hasn't come with some level of guilt because they've had to go to work.' Unlike those in some European and Nordic countries, Australian culture expects mothers to take responsibility for childcare even when they are working and the mother's income is vital, she says. Yet mothers tell Femeli their sense is that their employment is considered more 'disposable'. Though the gender equality movement has fought to shift assumptions about parenting and women's right to participate in employment, clients feel the message still received is, 'when a woman comes back to work, it's almost like someone is doing her a favour by letting her come back'. And this is concerning. Femeli is among those calling for better support for mothers and families as they juggle financial imperatives and their need to provide quality care to babies and very young children, as she believes getting women into work has been a higher priority than supporting mothers and children. She urges mothers who may feel consumed with worry or guilt as a result of recent news to realise it is not normal and to speak to their GP rather than decide on changing their work pattern while feeling unsettled. As rates of young mothers working full-time increase, workplace gender equality consultant Prue Gilbert says corporate women are also reporting rising feelings of guilt, more so than in previous years. 'We are hearing in coaching that women are returning to work earlier [after having babies] than they have done in the past, and are more likely to be going back full-time,' says Gilbert, chief executive of the workplace/parents consultancy Grace Papers. On May 15, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released data showing women's participation in the workforce had reached a record high of 63.4 per cent. A general rise in employment participation 'was strongest for women workers, increasing by 65,000, including 42,000 full-time jobs'. 'The data indicates the federal government's commitment to Early Childhood Education and Care and working women's rights is helping more women to find and stay in secure jobs,' the bureau stated. Loading Gilbert says feelings of guilt came through as she reviewed coaching insights: 'Guilt kept on coming up in themes. We haven't heard it so strongly in quite a number of years.' She wonders if the earlier work return, driven by economic uncertainty and organisational restructuring, is contributing. Ironically, use-it-or-lose it parental leave policies for fathers, which mean they need to take their entitlement within the first 12 months of the baby's life or forfeit it, are contributing to mothers' earlier return to employment. This phenomenon has also crossed the radar of the Assistant Minister for Social Services, Ged Kearney. 'I went back to work seven weeks after my twins were born – it was a difficult choice, but the right one for me,' Kearney says. 'What made things even harder was the judgment I faced – it's horrible that in the 2020s we're still having this conversation. 'No parent should feel guilty for going or not going back to work and every parent deserves to know their children are safe and cared for.' As her government prepares to bring legislation to parliament to cut off funding to early education centres that put profit over child safety, Georgie Dent continues to put pressure on it to create an independent national early childhood commission, as recommended by the Productivity Commission's landmark review. It would oversee safety, quality, access, workforce and funding, and ensure children are protected and services are accountable – reassurance parents need. Loading 'For so many households with young children, they are having a really hard time: financially, economically ... it's a luxury position to be able to stay afloat on one income,' says Dent. 'I have seen an unprecedented level of anguish and distress among parents … and been thinking about how it's so cruel to add guilt on top of that.'
Sydney Morning Herald
12-07-2025
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
The care fracture: how shocking abuse allegations have hit mothers
Writing on the professional women's website Women's Agenda this week, The Parenthood chief executive Georgie Dent also named this mother-blame phenomenon: 'In this moment of national grief and reckoning, the last thing families need is guilt piled on top of their fear and distress,' she wrote. 'And yet, some are using this crisis to argue that parents (but mostly mums) should just stay home – as if that's a real or simple choice for most families.' The blame and shame comments have been posted online on news articles about the abuse allegations, and in parenting forums on social media. On the longstanding parenting site Kidspot, columnist Lauren Robinson said she also uses childcare and noted: 'I'm sick of seeing that decision twisted into some suggestion of parental neglect.' Dr Emily Musgrove, resident psychologist on the hit podcast The Imperfects, on Thursday alluded to the resurfacing of the similarly enduring myth 'that the mum is available and responsible at all times'. 'My sense is we [mothers in this generation] are getting so much more exposed to guilt because we are violating this idealised mother role,' she said. Loading Numbers of women working are at a record high, as are numbers of children in early learning centres, supported by government policies encouraging women back to work. That backward ideas about working mothers have re-emerged following childcare abuse allegations has troubled advocates, especially as policies now exist to also support fathers to participate in childcare. The proportion of Australians grappling with juggling work and family care is not insignificant. In the March quarter of 2025, approximately 1,444,410 children from 1,015,790 families in Australia were using Child Care Subsidy (CCS)-approved care. These children attended an average of 27.5 hours of care per week. Data from the Australian Institute of Family Studies shows that as of the March quarter last year, 48 per cent of one-year-olds were enrolled in CCS-approved childcare services, up from 39 per cent in 2015. 'We are seeing an increasing proportion of new mothers remaining in employment after childbirth, with the proportion of employed mothers of an under-one-year-old increasing from 30 per cent in 1991 to 57 per cent in 2021,' a spokeswoman says. But academics including Melbourne University sociology professor Leah Ruppanner say the psychological burden of the tension between government policies – and economic conditions – that encourage both parents to work soon after having babies is still assigned primarily to mothers. Ruppanner's book, Drained, on women as the disproportionate mental load-bearers of parenting comes out next year. Anxiety triggered by disturbing childcare-abuse news is likely to also be felt by fathers, she said, but social pressure and responsibility for care of young children is still squarely on women. 'Mothers have an incredible amount of guilt, especially around whether they're being 'good' mothers, and now the energy of thinking about safety is just going to add one more layer to the mental load,' she says. 'We've been told women are solely responsible for the future of their children so you'd better not mess it up ... People think [mothers] have these open choices, but they don't. They're constrained economically, attitudinally.' Though she gains great satisfaction from her career as a registered psychologist south-west of Sydney, Alysha-Leigh Femeli says she has felt this tension between leaving young children in care – even during 'a very slow transition' – and the fulfilment of re-engaging in her work. She has treated families in the perinatal period for 13 years and is told by clients that they are so distressed by the recent child abuse allegations they are questioning if they should keep working. It is a sentiment voiced by one distressed mother interviewed on TV as she collected her toddler from Creative Gardens, the childcare centre at which alleged offender Joshua Dale Brown worked in south-western Melbourne. As the Victorian Department of Health prepared to text families of 1200 children aged five months to two years old, urging them to arrange STI tests for their babies and toddlers, the mother said she was questioning whether she should work. Loading Femeli says this is not an uncommon response. 'Women are terrified, really terrified, and I've had people wondering whether they should just pull their kids out of care because they feel so scared – this feels like something they hadn't even anticipated as an option. 'For a lot of women, working is a really important part of caring for their mental health,' she says. To have a break from [constantly caring for young children] can also be 'an important part of making sure they are wonderful mothers,' she says. Even so, 'I found it really hard going back to work, I had families [to see] but I felt heartbroken at the idea I would leave my babies … 'But I would always come back from work feeling really rejuvenated, like I'd gotten to use my brain; it was important for me to do be able to do that.' Femeli, a member of the Australian Association of Psychologists, describes the 'spike of anxiety' mothers may already feel when returning to work, and says it is driven by stubborn gender stereotypes. 'There is still a societal expectation that women will be the primary caregivers regardless of how much they are working: so you are going to 'fail' somewhere, either your employers or your responsibilities as a caregiver,' she says. 'I don't think I have a perinatal client who hasn't come with some level of guilt because they've had to go to work.' Unlike those in some European and Nordic countries, Australian culture expects mothers to take responsibility for childcare even when they are working and the mother's income is vital, she says. Yet mothers tell Femeli their sense is that their employment is considered more 'disposable'. Though the gender equality movement has fought to shift assumptions about parenting and women's right to participate in employment, clients feel the message still received is, 'when a woman comes back to work, it's almost like someone is doing her a favour by letting her come back'. And this is concerning. Femeli is among those calling for better support for mothers and families as they juggle financial imperatives and their need to provide quality care to babies and very young children, as she believes getting women into work has been a higher priority than supporting mothers and children. She urges mothers who may feel consumed with worry or guilt as a result of recent news to realise it is not normal and to speak to their GP rather than decide on changing their work pattern while feeling unsettled. As rates of young mothers working full-time increase, workplace gender equality consultant Prue Gilbert says corporate women are also reporting rising feelings of guilt, more so than in previous years. 'We are hearing in coaching that women are returning to work earlier [after having babies] than they have done in the past, and are more likely to be going back full-time,' says Gilbert, chief executive of the workplace/parents consultancy Grace Papers. On May 15, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released data showing women's participation in the workforce had reached a record high of 63.4 per cent. A general rise in employment participation 'was strongest for women workers, increasing by 65,000, including 42,000 full-time jobs'. 'The data indicates the federal government's commitment to Early Childhood Education and Care and working women's rights is helping more women to find and stay in secure jobs,' the bureau stated. Loading Gilbert says feelings of guilt came through as she reviewed coaching insights: 'Guilt kept on coming up in themes. We haven't heard it so strongly in quite a number of years.' She wonders if the earlier work return, driven by economic uncertainty and organisational restructuring, is contributing. Ironically, use-it-or-lose it parental leave policies for fathers, which mean they need to take their entitlement within the first 12 months of the baby's life or forfeit it, are contributing to mothers' earlier return to employment. This phenomenon has also crossed the radar of the Assistant Minister for Social Services, Ged Kearney. 'I went back to work seven weeks after my twins were born – it was a difficult choice, but the right one for me,' Kearney says. 'What made things even harder was the judgment I faced – it's horrible that in the 2020s we're still having this conversation. 'No parent should feel guilty for going or not going back to work and every parent deserves to know their children are safe and cared for.' As her government prepares to bring legislation to parliament to cut off funding to early education centres that put profit over child safety, Georgie Dent continues to put pressure on it to create an independent national early childhood commission, as recommended by the Productivity Commission's landmark review. It would oversee safety, quality, access, workforce and funding, and ensure children are protected and services are accountable – reassurance parents need. Loading 'For so many households with young children, they are having a really hard time: financially, economically ... it's a luxury position to be able to stay afloat on one income,' says Dent. 'I have seen an unprecedented level of anguish and distress among parents … and been thinking about how it's so cruel to add guilt on top of that.'
West Australian
12-07-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Childcare in Perth: Daycare centres charging over maximum rate cap as daily prices surge above $200
More than one third of childcare centres are charging fees above the maximum recommended by the Federal Government — the highest percentage since the subsidy was introduced in 2018 — as daily prices in Perth surge to above $200 in some suburbs. According to Federal Government data, 34.9 per cent of childcare centres in Australia had hourly fees over the maximum rate cap of $14.29 in the March quarter, compared to 29.9 per cent in the previous quarter and 12.5 per cent five years ago. The hourly-fee cap is set by the Government as a guide for what a 'high fee' might be, and it's the maximum rate the government will subsidise. A family's Child Care Subsidy percentage applies to the lowest of either the cap, or the hourly fee charged by their childcare provider, so families pay the difference when childcare centres charge above the cap. Last Monday, July 7, the CCS hourly rate cap increased to $14.63 in line with the Consumer Price Index. But the industry has warned the rise is not enough. Rachelle Tucker, the chief executive of the Australian Childcare Alliance WA, said the increase in centres charging above the hourly cap was concerning from an affordability perspective. 'But it is a reflection of the growing gap between the actual cost of delivering quality early learning and the CCS system's capped rates,' she said. 'The fee cap has not kept pace with the real costs of service delivery, especially for services in high-cost areas or those with higher staffing needs to support quality ratios and educational outcomes.' She added it was important to note that charging above the cap did not necessarily mean services were over-charging. 'It often means they are trying to cover their genuine operating costs,' she said. The revelations come at a time of turmoil for the sector, with educators, parents and providers reeling from allegations against Victorian man Joshua Dale Brown, who was charged with dozens of child sex offences allegedly committed against eight children at a Melbourne childcare centre. The WA Government has ordered a snap review of child safety in the State in light of the allegations. Last weekend, The West Australian revealed that hundreds of WA childcare centres either don't meet minimum quality standards or are yet to be rated. The State has the lowest proportion of centres that exceed the minimum standards, and none of its almost 1500 childcare services are rated 'excellent'. Government data shows fees in WA have increased by 15 per cent or $1.90 an hour in the past two years, to an average of $13.90 an hour across the country. Daily fees across Perth have hit $200 — before the CCS — in some areas. In response to a Facebook post on a parents' forum this week, dozens of Perth mothers shared their daily fees, starting as low as $119 and reaching $215. The six Schools of Early Learning are among the most expensive. Its North Perth centre has a two-day minimum costing $424. The price decreases each additional day to $905 for five days. Last year the Federal Government announced a 15 per cent pay rise for almost 200,000 childcare educators as part of a $3.6 billion package — but centres could only access the funding if they agreed to cap any fee increases at 4.4 per cent. Ms Tucker said while many centres had done their best to remain within the cap, 'the reality is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to absorb the rising costs of operating without passing some of those costs on to families. 'The cap is a blunt instrument that doesn't account for the significant cost increases in wages, utilities, food, rent, and compliance,' she said. 'Services are trying to balance affordability for families with the financial sustainability required to maintain quality and retain staff. Many services are operating on very tight margins, with little financial buffer.' Minister for Early Childhood Education Jess Walsh said the Government's early childhood education reforms, introduced two years ago, had delivered relief to more than one million families. 'For a family earning $168,000, with one child in care 30 hours a week, our reforms have cut out-of-pocket costs by around $7440 than they otherwise would be,' she said. 'We want to make sure workers can be fairly paid without the costs being passed onto families.' The Government is taking compliance action against centres that breach the 4.4 per cent fee cap, but it is understood the vast majority of centres have kept within the rules.
