On 2 April 2020 the Australian Government announced a new Relief Package. From Monday 6 April 2020, weekly payments will be made directly to the service instead of the Child Care Subsidy and the Additional Child Care Subsidy which were previously available. This is designed to keep services running.
The payments will continue up to 30 June 2020. This means families will not be charged fees between 6 April and 30 June 2020.
Ordinarily, a child can have up to 42 allowable absence days from the service. This year, because of COVID-19, that has been raised to 62 allowable absences between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020.
For parents who owe an out of pocket fee for the period 23 March to 5 April 2020, if the service was open but you did not send a child because of COVID-19, the service can now waive that out of pocket fee. This is in addition to the power services already had to waive out of pocket fees if the service had to close on public health advice.
If you require more information on the above please contact Nevine Youssef on nyoussef@marsdens.net.au or Tom Reeve on treeve@marsdens.net.au or by phoning 02 4626 5077.
More information is also available at https://www.education.gov.au/news/covid-19-early-childhood-education-and-care-relief-package-monday-6-april-additional-support.
