Childcare centres cash in on Federal Government’s new childcare subsidy
THE Turnbull Government’s eagerly awaited childcare subsidy could fall short as cash-hungry childcare centres raise their fees by as much as 600 per cent.
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EXCLUSIVE
CHILDCARE centres are increasing their fees by up to $24 a day in the lead up to the government’s new childcare subsidy coming into force next week (July 2).
And some council-run centres are upping their fee increase by 600 per cent on the jump they made in the previous financial year.
An investigation by News Corp Australia has uncovered the activities by childcare operators who are potentially taking advantage of the new subsidy which is supposed to lessen childcare cost pain for families.
Instead, the extra money families will receive from the government could be eaten up by greedy fee increases.
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Ingles Street Early Learning & Kinder in Port Melbourne is increasing its daily fee by $24 to $145 per day, per child according to a Facebook post by one mum connected to the centre.
And a council-run centre in the Blacktown City Council municipality in Sydney has increased fees in the preschool room by $10.50 a day, which is a 600 per cent jump on the $1.50 increase the room got last year.
Many other centres across the country are increasing their fees.
For a family with two kids in childcare, five days a week they could face an extra $2600 a year in childcare fees as a result of a $5 a day increase.
The Federal Government says the average family will be $1300 better off per child under their new childcare subsidy if a family is using 28 hours of care a week — which for a nine-hour day equates to just three days a week care.
Depending on a family’s financial situation and the hours of care they use a week, even after the changes, families facing a $5 a day increase could be paying $1300 more on fees.
Ingles Street Early Learning & Kinder director Sharyn Friend was contacted by News Corp Australia via phone and email and said she was “not interested” when asked to comment.
Mum-of-two Erika Geffroy, 36, said her council run centre in Blacktown council had tried to justify the increase on ratio changes but once she probed further they changed their reason to “the fact they were no longer charging for public holidays and the structure of council run funding changing”.
“We love the staff at our centre and they are not responsible for this,” Ms Geffroy, mum to Sebastian, 4, and Nathaniel, 18-months, said.
“But absolutely I have no doubt childcare centres are implementing larger fee increases this year to take advantage of the new subsidy. This will mean more money out of our pockets.
“We have a Facebook group in our area and everyone on it has said that their fees are going up by more than did in previous years.”
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Tiffany Blackwood, 28, from Queensland’s Bli Bli said her fees for family day care were going up by $14 a day.
“The email we got from the centre said ‘due to the new childcare subsidy we are increasing our fees’,” she said.
Ms Blackwood has 8-month-old triplets, a two-year-old in family day care and an 11-year-old son.
“On one hand I kind of get it because they have to train staff and do more paperwork but on the other hand I think it’s ridiculous that we’re having to pay more when the government said this would help reduce costs,” she said.
“It’s so hard because I can’t afford to go to work but I also can’t afford to not go to work.”
Brisbane-based Goodstart Early Learning spokesman John Cherry said fees at its centres were going up but would not say by how much or if they had increased on last year.
“Our fee increases this year are, on average, similar to last year. Our fee increases vary depending on the local conditions (and) … cover paying our educators above award wages, significant increases in rents on our centres, and our ongoing commitment to improving the quality of early learning by investing in professional development and upgrading the learning environments of our centres.”
Goodstart is the largest provider of childcare services across the country.
Executive Director of The Parenthood Alys Gagnon said parents were feeling very stressed about the changing childcare subsidy.
“This is not the time for excessive childcare fee increases, and it would be extremely disappointing to hear if any providers were taking advantage of the switch to the new Subsidy to increase fees at an unreasonable rate,” she said.
Early Childhood Australia CEO, Sam Page, said some centres could be taking advantage of the new subsidy.
“There might be a bit of that, definitely,” she said.
“The key message out of this is parents need to go on to the estimator to compare services and see if their centre is charging above the fee cap.”
Education Minister Simon Birmingham said it was clear the childcare system was broken which was why the changes on July 2 were necessary.
“Parents should use their power and turn their backs on child care centres trying to rip them off,” he said.