Hi Guys
Need some advice. My wife just called Centrelink yesterday and was told we will not be getting any more help this financial year as we have reached $7500 limit for the year. Does anyone have any advice what to do ? She gets paid very low to the point it's not worth working but does not want to stop working too. Not sure where we stand and if there is a way to push for extended benefit.
And remember, the government is funded by taxpayers — honest people who give up huge chunks of their income.
It's not funded by the politicians you love to hate on TV, they're liabilities too!
Your right on that one.
Unfortunately thats it - assume you have reached limit for both CCB and CCR. Perhaps she can consider work part-time - lot of women do that when the kids are young and the job is not that high paying.
Better not do any work and save money.
The point of child care should be to enable parents, who earn more by working than the cost of child care, to trade their child caring responsibilities for labour to yield a net profit.
If a parent doesn't earn more by working than the cost of child care, they shouldn't be working; unless they sufficiently dislike caring for their own children.
Lol, no more handouts for you!!!
Seriously though, what is with childcare costs in this country…
High demand but low supply. It's also very labour intensive, from January this year a carer can only look after a maximum of 5 children at a time. It all drives up costs.
I feel your pain OP, we're in the same boat. But in our area, you do not take the kids out of day care as you'll likely not get them back in. Cut back on any costs you can, just like we've had to.
You can't do much unless you change to a cheaper centre or reduce your child's hours.
This happens every year around feb or march. Every family would have exhausted their allocated $7.5k CCB and be out of pocket. Discuss with your childcare if you could pay via installments. Alternatively, your wife have to work part time or stop work entirely depending on her income.
Is subsidising childcare an actual benefit to all taxpayers or just pandering to the 51% demographic suffcient to win an election? $7500 free money for nothing seems pretty generous to me.
The general idea is childcare rebate allows both parents to work (rather than one, usually the mother, staying home to care), thus increasing GDP.
Higher demand for childcare then leads to more childcare jobs being created, further increasing GDP.
Now in reality this isn't always the case - perhaps CC providers are unfairly raising their rates, perhaps as in OPs case it makes more financial sense to care for your own child and forego employment.
You'd hope an analysis has been done by Treasury that has found the $7500 'handout' creates benefits that the Government deem a good return on investment.
What has happened is dual incomes have sent house prices skywards, while at the same time one of those incomes just gets eaten by childcare costs going up due to other people doing exactly the same. It's very hard not to tie childcare cost demands with mortgage stress, and I can't see any justification to easing one demographic's lifestyle choice mortgage stress over another's, who will never benefit. The beneficiary is banks and their profits. The piggy in the middle is people who committed to a lifestyle choice they cannot afford. It was still their choice. The victims are the poor sod taxpayers who will never benefit from subsidising another person's children and ensuring someone else lives in a certain school boundary.
Personally I don't believe in GDP for GDP's sake. New Zealand's GDP went up due to rebuilding efforts after their earthquake. If I break my leg and spend time rehabilitating to get back to square one, I might have been busy, but I haven't been more productive than never breaking my leg in the first place. There needs to be some form of advancement test. GDP goes up if one person digs a hole and another fills it, but with no net benefit.
I'm an economist by training, and think GDP is as flawed as the next person. However it's what Governments seem to be focused on maximising - even if it isn't linked to any real improvement in people's lives.
I also don't support massive CC rebates/handouts - particularly at a certain household income level you should be expected to fund it yourself. At the moment the taper down income level is way too high.
It'll be interesting to see how the current CC reform laws turn out, but I'm not optimistic.
A final point - as with many things in Australia at the moment; as soon as you leave Melb/Syd, CC costs go way down and are much more affordable, even on the relatively lower income.
If she's not earning enough to have any financial benefit to your day-to-day living then why wouldn't she want to quit and spend time with your kid?
Coz kids are so tiring, you need time at work away from the kids, so you can sit at a desk and surf OzBargain in peace!
It's once they get older and go to school that they become tiring. They learn lots of bad habits from their new friends.
They learn lots of bad habits from their new friends.
Like free thinking.
Then why have them ?
Because people are simple creatures who don't sit back and question things. They just go along doing what everyone else is doing, believing that the right and best things to do in life are XYZ and that if you fail to achieve those things then you are a loser in life, and your life has been pointless and wasted.
Status symbols. Primitive urge to create offspring. Something to channel their dwindling lives into to create some scrap of meaning. Ego. Make more of yourself cos it's cute and amazing and they'll be the greatest people ever shat into the world.
It still baffles me why people mindlessly pop out kids, though, to some extent.
It's about work life balance. If a parent spends entire time looking after kids, the parent does lose part of their identity. Most ppl don't want to be seen as a mum only or dad only. Why do ppl ask others of their occupation first at any BBQ or gatherings.
This is why the Government invented menopause, so grandparents can look after our kids.
Not if they're below the ever increasing retirement age…
Geepers how much is your childcare per day?
What does your wife do? Is it actually less pay than the childcare costs per day?
Have you considered the cheaper community care options?
How about take some time off work,look after the kids and she continues to work?
the handout is generous and free.better than nothing.
We made the same mistake our first year of Childcare. Our rebate ran out early March and we were paying full fees for the remainder of the Financial Year. As far as I'm aware there are no options available to extend this rebate further than $7,500.
Now that we have two kids in daycare, we set up a separate savings account and worked out what we 'need' to pay each year, and then put the right amount aside each fortnight to make sure we were covered for the full year. The fees are taken directly from this account.
Our kids are in daycare 4 days a week at $95 per child. We receive 50% CCR per child (up to $7,500 each) but no CCB. We're in regional Queensland so I think the daily rate is quite good compared to some Capital cities.
So we worked out 2 (children) x $95 (per day) x 4 (days per week) x 52 (weeks per year) - $7,500 (CCR Rebate Child one) - $7,500 (CCR Child two) = $24,520 in out of pocket Child Care expenses for us per year. We then divided this by 26 (fortnights per year)which equals $943 and put this money aside out of my pay to cover childcare costs. For the first 7 or 8 months of the year we're only charged $760 per fortnight, so the extra adds up to cover the difference later in the year.
If we don't do this, we end up paying $1,520 per fortnight in out of pocket costs for the last 3 - 4 months of the year which is a substantial portion of my pay.
Jesus wept!
That's the price of childcare?
I'm starting a Childcare Centre, for arts and crafts the little sods can see genuine Italian leather wallets and soccer balls.
F. U. C. K. my eyes, I'm glad I don't have kids.
I'm guessing your child is in care full time or 4 days, you are better off putting the kid in 2 days a week and your wife working part time.
The rebate lasts longer that way.
Best to plan ahead, surely you saw this coming?
Wondering whether this has an effect on why part time work is growing and full timers are diminishing.
One solution to the expense of child care would be for an Au Pair temporary working Visa. The 462 and 417 visas are way to restrictive.
Thanks a lot for the contribution guys. The advice gives me a lot to think about and I should have looked into it before.
Check for any available 'family day care' service provier around your area. They're usually cheaper than daycare centres.
Otuer option would be to move closer to any family member who may look after tue childbfor at least a day every week.
We're sending our daughter to childcare centre three days a week too. We'll be out of pocket by appx $8k each yr
Centrelink will pay for 13 weeks but not if you just have a low ongoing income.
Find an Au Pair from overseas who work for weekly pocket money.
If you can't pay out & feed them - don't breed them. The rest of us are not here to supplement your lifestyle with our hard earned money. Find a family member I.e. Grandparent or Aunt to look after them. You're lucky to have been born in recent decades & not in your parents or Grandparents time when there was no government money available. Stop whinging & get on with it.
Yeah have the same happen here, our daycare is… $88 per day i think? 4 days a week, we end up maxing out the $7.5 about april / may.
It stings, as at full price not working yields more cash into the house than working + shelling out full daycare price - but only for the remainder of the FIN year, and as others have said - the day care generally wont let you cut down your days when your rebate runs out (plus if your working, you cant stop working either).
More affordable daycare would be great… but how to do dis?
Govt loves to call all skilled people from overseas and welcome them to move in with their families the very next day they go for Medicare card and other benefits. The more people will move into Australia the sooner we all will start losing basic benefits. This is all planned. Govt and authorities are aware of the situations and issues local families are or will go through.
Don't think there is much else you can get in this rebate. Have you applied for family allowance?
Imagine you are first year into this, happens to many parents as $7500 childcare rebate (although generous in my opinion) doesnt last all year for many. Would be nice if they automated an email reminding people how much allowance they have left. As they send info every qtr when rebate processed.
Wife now does 2 days a week, we find that a good balance
Yeh some people abuse the government support for childcare and claim massive amounts of childcare support but than theres others that rather work but can't afford the cost of childcare. And than theres government policy where we have to increase military spending like buying new jets and subs.
Pretty sure my daycare told us today we'he reached ours :(
It is what it is.
If you have reached the threshold then you have to pay out of pocket.
The same rule applies to everyone.
The govt is not an unlimited ATM.
I am not trying to be rude and believe me, cost of living is high for a lot of us, but you cannot expect the government to pay up endlessly.