Kids miss out on daycare when parents can’t pay the $14-per-day ‘gap fee’, child advocates warn

Childcare experts are demanding daycare for all kids — even if their parents are out of work or can’t pay a gap fee.

Exclusive: Childcare experts are demanding free daycare for kids with parents on the dole.

Early Childhood Australia chief executive Samantha Page said all children should be able to attend childcare at least two days a week – even if their parents are out of work or too poor to pay a gap fee.

“It is a complicated system and out of pocket costs are genuinely too high for some families,’’ she said.

Shonna-Lee Johnson and Christiana Rory building models at Indi Kindi. Picture: Wayne Quilliam

“Children should have a right of access in their own right, not just because their parents are working.

“Two or three days a week for every child under school age would be a sensible investment in education, and make it easier for families to navigate domestic violence, mental health issues, addiction and homelessness.’’

The Morrison government will spend $10.3 billion subsidising childcare this year, although parents must pass an “activity test’’ to prove they are working, studying or job-hunting to get fee relief.

Early Childhood Australia CEO Samantha Page. Picture: Supplied

The subsidies cover 85 per cent of daycare fees for the first child, and up to 95 per cent of fees for siblings, depending on family income.

A parent with one child in daycare costing $95 a day must pay $14.25 in out-of-pocket fees – or $142 a fortnight.

Vulnerable children at risk of neglect, or whose parents are in temporary hardship, can access free full-time childcare for up to 13 weeks through the “additional childcare subsidy’’.

Indi Kindi, a not-for-profit Indigenous childcare centre at Borroloola in the Northern Territory, a 13-hour-drive from Darwin, covers the full cost of childcare for all the kids in care.

Seven local Aboriginal women care for the children, often hosting lessons and play sessions outdoors, with advice from community elders and families.

IndiKindi educator Amanda Evans with children Serafina Cole, Tycelle Douglas, Leonardis Evans and Leonardis Dickson. Picture: Wayne Quilliam

Indi Kindi’s managing director, Ros Moriarty, said unemployment rates were higher than 50 per cent in some remote communities.

She said families in Borroloola earned a median $572 a fortnight so could not afford to spend a quarter of their income on childcare gap fees.

She said many parents did not qualify for any childcare subsidies as they were out of work.

“If these programs are not supported, we risk condemning more Indigenous children in remote communities to a life of poverty,’’ Ms Moriarty said.

“Childcare subsidies primarily benefit working parents and are unaffordable to others.’’

IndiKindi, which provides childcare in a remote community in Borroloola. Picture: Supplied

Ms Moriarty said a federal Health Department grant helped cover the cost of childcare, while global children’s charity UNICEF would expand the service to Tennant Creek this month.

The Parenthood executive director Georgie Dent said Aboriginal children are less likely to attend childcare than other Australian kids.

“In Australia, the children who aren’t attending are the most likely to benefit from being there,’’ she said.

“High-quality early education and care should be accessible and completely affordable to every single child in Australia, regardless of whether their parents are unemployed or a CEO.

“It is naive to assume that every child in Australia has got a safe home environment where their needs are able to be met.

“That might be the dream, but we know that lots of children are living with incredible dysfunction and stress because of parents’ mental health and unemployment.’’

Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Matray

Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge said the government had spent $28 million providing free daycare to 44,000 Australian children, including 5500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, through the Additional Child Care Subsidy in the last three months of 2020.

“We have also provided more than $160 million since 2018 to support 180 services which predominantly support Indigenous children,’’ he said.

Originally published as Kids miss out on daycare when parents can’t pay the $14-per-day ‘gap fee’, child advocates warn