Child Care Rebate and Child Care Benefit

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.
  • The Child Care Rebate pays up to 50% of your out of pocket expenses for child care up to an annual cap. From 1 July 2011 the Child Care Rebate annual cap is $7,500 per child per year.
  • 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 in the Fact Sheets..

What is the Child Care Benefit?

To receive the Child Care Rebate you must be eligible for Child Care Benefit (assessed at a rate of zero or more). This means:

  • You must be using approved child care, which includes: Long Day Care, Family Day Care, Outside Schools Hours Care, Occasional Care and In Home Care.
  • You or your partner must be an Australian citizen, a permanent resident living in Australia or be exempt from the Government’s residency requirements.
  • Children under seven years of age must meet the Government’s immunisation requirements or have an exemption.
  • You must be the person responsible for your child care costs. If your employer contributes through salary sacrificing or packaging, you should discuss with your employer who is responsible for your child care costs.
  • To also receive the Child Care Rebate you and your partner (if applicable) must have work, training or study related commitments at some time during the week or have an exemption.
  • Find out how much you could receive using the child care estimator on the Family Assistance website.

How to claim

  • You must apply for the Child Care Benefit to receive the Child Care Rebate.
  • Visit the Family Assistance Office to apply for the Child Care Benefit.
  • Your eligibility for the Child Care Rebate will be automatically assessed by the Family Assistance Office. Payments will be made once the Family Assistance Office have received child care attendance details from your child care service/s.
  • If you have any questions contact the Family Assistance Office on 13 61 50.

It is important to remember that the Child Care Rebate is not income tested. You may be eligible to receive this rebate even though your family income is too high to receive the Child Care Benefit.

Campaign materials

These materials contain the information presented in HTML format above.

Phase 2

View the Television Advertisement

Download the Television Advertisement Transcript (PDF 404KB | RTF 32KB)

Download the print advertisement
Print advertisement 1 (PDF 1.2MB) Print advertisement 2 (PDF 1.5MB)

Download the radio advertisement
(MP3 5.6MB), Transcript - (PDF 404KB | RTF 32KB)

Download the Poster
(PDF 2.5MB)

Download Non-English Speaking Background Print ads
NESB_Press_Arabic
(PDF 3.15MB)
NESB_Press_CHS-T
(PDF 2.57MB)
NESB_Press_Dinka
(PDF 2.66MB)
NESB_Press_Korean
(PDF 2.71MB)
NESB_Press Somali
(PDF 2.54MB)
NESB_Press Spanish
(PDF 2.58MB)
NESB_Press_Tagalog
(PDF 2.64MB)
NESB_Press_Turkish
(PDF 2.39MB)
NESB_Press_Vietnamese
(PDF 2.41MB)

Download Non-English Speaking Background Radio
Arabic Radio
MP3 (audio - 1.85MB)
Cantonese Radio
MP3 (audio - 1.38MB)
Dinka Radio
MP3 (audio - 1.43MB)
Korean Radio
MP3 (audio - 1.42MB)
Mandarin Radio
MP3 (audio - 1.41MB)
Somali Radio
MP3 (audio - 1.9MB)
Spanish Radio
MP3 (audio - 1.43MB)
Tagalog Radio
MP3 (audio - 1.41MB)
Turkish Radio
MP3 (audio - 1.40MB)
Vietnamese Radio
MP3 (audio - 1.43MB)

Phase 1

Television Advertisement

Download the print advertisement
Colour print advertisement (PDF - 700KB), Mono print advertisement (PDF - 630KB)

Download the radio advertisement
Download the radio advertisement as an MP3 (audio - 1.2MB), Download the radio advertisement as an RTF (transcript - 29KB), Download the radio advertisement as a PDF (transcript - 98KB)