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Information on Child Care
Child care provides the foundations for children to
develop in a safe environment while also having the
opportunity to socialise with other children. In addition to
benefiting the child's early years' development, child care
also aids working families to return to work.
On this page you will find links to information to help
you make an informed choice on child care as well as details
of financial assistance to help reduce the out-of-pocket
costs of child care.
Child Care
There is so much information about child care and early
childhood information available that you might not know
where to start looking for answers. In this section, you
will find answers to the child care questions Australian
families frequently ask.
If you are still unsure where to get started, check our
Where to Get Started page.
Child Care fee assistance
The Australian Government provides assistance to eligible
families to reduce the out-of-pocket costs of child care.
There are different types of financial assistance to help
with the cost of placing children in child care. The main
payments families may be eligible for are:
Estimating your child care costs
The Child Care Estimator gives families and carers an
estimate of how much financial assistance they could receive
from the Australian Government for the cost of child care.
It provides an estimated dollar value of Child Care Benefit
and Child Care Rebate entitlements, as well as
out-of-pocket, child care costs.
To use the estimator, you will need to know:
- the type of child care being used, including session
(e.g. daily or hourly rate)
- the cost of your child care fees
- your estimated annual income.
Information about child care fees can be obtained from a
quote provided by a child care centre, or by using the
child care search
facility on this website.
You can make a guess about what you think these costs may
be, although this will affect the accuracy of the final
estimate of your entitlements and out-of-pocket costs.
You can access the
Child Care Estimator at the Centrelink website.
Other Child Care information