Childcare costs are crippling families. Time to step up and fix a broken system

I COULD fly to Bali each week with the money I am spending on childcare. It’s time for a proper fix to get more women into work, writes Lanai Scarr.

Childcare can break the budgets of many Australian families.

EACH week my husband and I are paying $720 in out of pocket costs on childcare — close to $3000 a month.

That’s almost a return flight to Bali each week. Or a trip to Europe every month.

For just three days of childcare for our 18-month-old triplets and three-year-old we’re paying $240 a day in out of pocket costs — that’s after the government rebate.

When our rebate cap of $7613 maxes out eight weeks before the end of the financial year we’ll be paying the full $1440 a week on childcare.

For just eight weeks of care we’ll be paying $11,520 out of pocket — or the cost of a new small car.

Currently, we’re paying more than our mortgage on childcare fees. We’re paying almost triple our weekly grocery bill.

My husband and I both have good jobs, but by no means are we wealthy. And yet our archaic childcare system in Australia leaves us with very little option but to accept a budget flogging if I want to work full-time.

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If I want to be ambitious, have a good job, progress my career and continue contributing to my superannuation in a significant way while my kids are young, we have to essentially live on fumes.

Lanai Scarr could fly return to Bali every week with what she and her husband spend on childcare. (Pic: Justin Lloyd)

I accept not every family has four small kids in childcare and is enduring such massive costs. But an exclusive survey for News Corp Australia today shows that despite our large brood, we’re not unique.

Close to 40 per cent of families using childcare are paying equal to or more than their mortgage each week for it. A third are paying double their grocery bills. A total of 34 per cent said they had been late paying bills because of childcare costs.

This is madness.

We often lament that there are not more women in the workforce but how are we supposed to even begin fixing that when our childcare system is fundamentally broken?

Even when the government’s legislated childcare changes come into force in July 2018, families on a combined household income of $185,000 — just $10,553 more than the average income per person in a dual income household — will still only be able to afford to send their children to childcare three days a week without maxing the updated rebate cap of $10,000 in most cases.

And even those families below that threshold who get an unlimited cap and additional assistance will still face huge fees.

The recent changes are a great first step, but hardly the panacea we need.

It’s time to step up and realise — as former Governor-general Quentin Bryce says — “childcare is the heartland issue”.

If countries like Sweden, Japan, France and Germany can all do it better than us, why have we dropped the ball for Australian families?

@pollietracker