Childcare costs to rise: How much Australians will pay after Federal Election

Big changes in childcare costs are afoot. Now an online calculator can tell you which political party is offering the best deal.

Working parents can now check what out-of-pocket childcare costs they will have to pay each week, depending on which political party wins the election.

A clever online election calculator, devised by the childcare app KindiCare, shows parents exactly how much they will have to pay under the Liberals and Labor, as well as The Greens, who are offering free childcare for all.

As a comparison, the calculator also assesses the recommendations of Minderoo Foundation’s Thrive By Five - a leading early childhood education and care advocate which is calling for 15 hours of free preschool for three-years-olds and a progressive increase in the childcare subsidy for the first child to 95 per cent – and subsequent siblings – to 100 per cent.

KindiCare Founder Benjamin Balk said between the two major parties, the calculator showed that in almost all scenarios two-parent working families would be better off under Labor.

And, an average working family with two children in childcare would save between $6386 and $11,013 a year in out-of-pocket fees if Labor won the election.

KindiCare founder Benjamin Balk, with his family. Picture: Kirsty Jauncey Photography.

Mr Balk said the government’s recent changes to the Child Care Subsidy provided targeted additional support to families with two or more children aged five and under in care, but nothing extra for those with just one child in care.

Mr Balk said he created the KindiCare Election Calculator to “bring transparency to election promises” and allow parents to make an informed decision when they go to the voting booth.

“Bottom line for most families is – will I pay less for childcare under the Coalition or Labor?” he said.

“And if I want or need to work more hours will my income be eaten up in fees through reduced subsidies?”

Parenthood executive director Georgie Dent said funding for childcare was so complicated that it was often difficult for families to know how much they would be paying in any given year.

“This calculator makes it so simple,” she said.

“With the recent childcare fee increases it’s really difficult for families.

“Every dollar that families can save makes a difference.”

Thrive By Five Director and former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill said out-of-pocket childcare costs had gone up nearly 10 per cent in two years.

“The rising cost of childcare is stretching household budgets and pushing up living costs for many Australian families,” he said.

A spokesman for Acting Education Minister Stuart Robert said the Morrison government was delivering record child care funding that is targeted to low- and middle-income families, and particularly where the costs added up when families had a second or third child.

“Out-of-pocket costs are still on average 14 per cent lower than when we reformed the child care system in 2018,” he said.

“Labor has a policy for cheaper child care for millionaires costing an additional $63 billion over the next decade on top of our current policies.

“An additional $18 billion over the forward years alone with no plan on how it would be funded.”

Alongside the calculator, the KindiCare site is running a poll asking parents whether the childcare subsidy policies of the major parties would affect how they voted in this year’s federal election.

So far, 77 per cent have said it would.

The latest official figures showed that 1,383,550 children from 1,000,760 families attended childcare subsidy approved centres in the June quarter of 2021.

It comes as fee increases of about six per cent have hit families at the same as the cost of living had escalated.

The calculator can be found at www.kindicare.com.