Families hit with childcare fee rises early, Goodstart and G8 raise fees

Tens of thousands of Aussie families face a sharp increase in childcare fees. See which centres are increasing prices.

Tens of thousands of families have seen a hike in childcare fees, after Australia’s biggest provider introduced its annual increase several months early to compensate for soaring costs.

Goodstart – a not-for-profit provider with 664 centres servicing more than 60,000 families – upped its fees this month by an average of 4.9 per cent.

It comes as Australia’s biggest for-profit provider G8, which looks after 46,000 kids across 470 centres, bumped up its fees by six per cent in February.

KindiCare founder Benjamin Balk and his family. Picture: Kristy Jauncey Photography

KindiCare app founder Benjamin Balk said he expected other providers to follow suit and estimated that fees across most centres would rise by four to eight per cent this year.

He said the latest data from his app, which helps parents find a childcare provider, found that the average daily fee was now $119 a day.

Last year fees went up on average 6.5 per cent.

Goodstart board member Natalie Walker said the industry was “under the biggest financial pressure ever experienced”.

“The sector is facing its biggest crisis,” she said.

“We’re not-for-profit so we’re not trying to make a profit, we are just trying to cover costs, so any rise in fees is for that reason.”

The childcare sector is facing “it’s biggest crisis”. Picture: iStock

A breakdown of Goodstart’s fees revealed 72 per cent goes on wages, 16 per cent on rent, facilities and maintenance; five per cent on IT and operating costs; a further five per cent on nappies, food, educational resources, cleaning and health and hygiene products; two per cent on training and one per cent supporting vulnerable children.

Ms Walker said childcare providers across the sector were being forced to increase fees due to a “confluence of factors” including unexpected costs relating to the pandemic, lower attendances, rising rents and wages, plus costs incurred from staff shortages.

“Most providers are small, family run businesses with only a handful of centres,” Ms Walker said.

“The real fear is that we are going to see closures.

“They will have been drawing on their balance sheets to get through this period.

“Sometimes there is nothing left in the tank.”

Vicky Doneska, 42, of Sydney, with her husband Risto and children Maisey, 6, and Jack, 3. Picture: Supplied.

She said Goodstart was in a better position than most and had a bigger balance sheet to draw on.

She said she supported a pre-election push by early childhood education advocates for free quality childcare for kids three days a week, which would ease the financial burden for parents and centres, encourage more women to go back to work and boost the economy.

Former lawyer turned business consultant Vicky Doneska, 42, from Sydney, said the cost of her son’s $152 a day childcare fees meant it was not financially viable to work full-time.

“I think there are a lot of women who choose not to work more because it does not make financial sense,” she said.

Originally published as Families hit with childcare fee rises early, Goodstart and G8 raise fees