Childcare fees set to rise as fee freeze wound back

Parents have hit out at childcare centres raising their fees, saying it’s totally “out of step” and could stop mums returning to work.

Jana Firestone and partner Chris Groeneweg have been warned childcare cost will go up. Picture: Wayne Taylor.

Some Victorian childcare centres will start raising their fees from Monday after providers were barred from charging parents more during the pandemic.

From the end of September until Sunday, a fee freeze was in place as the federal government paid Victorian providers 25 per cent of their pre-pandemic revenue in a $305 million support package.

The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal some operators have already warned parents that fees will now rise again from February.

Jana Firestone said her family’s childcare centre had advised of an increase which was “completely unfair”.

“Kindergarten is free in 2021 and with many private schools choosing not to increase their fees, our childcare centre’s decision is out of step,” she said.

“Many other parents are really disappointed. We love our centre and it’s obviously a corporate decision to increase fees.”

“The fee increase is also prohibitive of women’s careers who may now have no alternative but to pull out to take care of their children. What message does that send?”

Jana Firestone (left) said the decision is out of step with other education providers. Picture: Wayne Taylor.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, released last week, showed childcare costs in Melbourne increased by 1.5 per cent from the end of 2019 to the end of last year, ­despite months where childcare was free because of the coronavirus crisis.

Nationwide, costs increased by 2.4 per cent over the same period, while federal government modelling shows fees are forecast to rise by as much as 16 per cent between 2020 and 2024.

Opposition early childhood education spokeswoman Amanda Rishworth warned: “The hits will only keep coming”.

“The Morrison government has now given the green light for Victorian families to be subjected again to significant fee hikes, with no extra support to bring down out-of-pocket costs,” she said.

But new Education Minister Alan Tudge said last week that out-of-pocket expenses had been driven down by the government’s reforms in 2018. “Our package is geared towards those people who need it most,” he said.

Labor has promised that if it wins the next election, it will slash fees for 97 per cent of families in a $6.2 billion package that also removes the cap on subsidies so parents can more easily return to work.

Mr Tudge criticised that proposal, claiming the “biggest winners” were families earning more than $350,000 a year who are currently not eligible for government subsidies.