Increases to the Cheaper Childcare Subsidy are now available to families and single parents across the nation, with more than 5,800 local families in the electorate of Corangamite to benefit from the boost.

Federal Member for Corangamite, Libby Coker, said the increase is aimed at alleviating cost of living pressures, and congratulated local childcare centers’ who welcomed the increase without raising their fees beyond inflation.

“Childcare fees are a huge financial burden for so many of our local families and the increase to the Cheaper Childcare Subsidy is a great step towards easing that pressure,” Ms Coker said.

“We want to see single parents and especially young mums get back to work if they want to, and the Albanese Government’s increase to the cheaper childcare subsidy is all about making that a reality.”

Ms Coker added that she is currently seeking feedback from the community on whether local childcare providers had increased their fees in response to the boosted subsidy.

“I would encourage all local families to get in touch and let me know which providers are doing the right thing and also which centers are increasing fees beyond the rate of inflation.”

“We need to make sure that we do all we can to support the growing number of young families across our region.”

“The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) are keeping an eye on fee increases across the nation, but it’s important for local families to let us know which centers are raising their fees.”

Local mum, Sarah Walker of Armstrong Creek, said the increase to the subsidy had been welcomed by families across the region and she had not heard of any centers increasing fees beyond inflation.

“Increasing the childcare subsidy will help, especially with how difficult the cost of living is at the moment,” said Ms Walker.

“I think increasing the subsidy is a step in the right direction, but so many parents feel that childcare centers will soon raise their fees – it feels inevitable.”

From 2018 to 2022 child care fees grew faster than inflation according to the ACCC’s child care price inquiry interim report released on Wednesday last week.

The Albanese Government commissioned the ACCC inquiry to get a greater insight into the factors driving fee increases and to ensure we’re closely monitoring fees following the introduction of the Cheaper Child Care reforms.

The interim report looked at child care fees from 2018 to 2022, and found fees have increased across all service types by between 20 per cent and 32 per cent.               

According to the interim report, parents indicated affordability is the most important consideration when deciding how much child care to use.

This highlights the importance of the Government’s Cheaper Child Care reforms, which came into effect this month – providing cost of living relief for more than 1 million Australian families. 

In releasing the report, the ACCC has reminded providers that they need to be transparent and honest about the reasons for any price changes.

As part of its ongoing investigations the ACCC will closely monitor fees following the introduction of the Cheaper Child Care reforms.

Other key findings in the report include:

• The average fee of larger providers was higher compared to small and medium providers. 
• About half of households with the lowest incomes spend 5-21 per cent of their disposable income on child care and those on the highest incomes, spend 2-9 per cent.
• Indigenous children are less likely to be enrolled in child care than non-Indigenous, around 10 percentage points below the total Australian child population.
• Vulnerable households face more issues in terms of availability, choice and quality of care. In particular, quality ratings tend to be lower in areas of relative disadvantage.
• The number of family day care and centre-based day care services charging above the hourly rate cap has almost doubled from 2018 to 2022.

The report provides early insight into the ACCC’s investigations into prices, supply and demand for early childhood education and care (ECEC) and will inform its findings to be delivered to Government by the end of the year. 

The ACCC’s final report will make recommendations to Government on whether the current price regulation mechanisms are working well enough, and whether more can be done to keep fees in check and out-of-pocket costs down for families. 

The ACCC inquiry complements the Productivity Commission inquiry into ECEC which will provide advice about how to make the whole system more affordable and more accessible to set up early education for the next decade and beyond.

The ACCC’s interim report is available at here.

To further address concerns, the Productivity Commission is considering additional policy avenues for the federal government to address childcare fees and models.