Covid-19: Cash injection to help struggling childcarers

The Morrison government has moved to shore up the childcare sector rattled by renewed lockdowns restrictions, injecting up to $50m per week.

Education Minister Alan Tudge has moved to shore up the childcare sector rattled by renewed lockdowns restrictions, injecting up to $50 million per week to support struggling providers. Picture: Getty Images

The Morrison government has moved to shore up the childcare sector rattled by renewed lockdown restrictions, injecting up to $50m a week to support struggling providers.

The Victorian government has mandated that only essential workers or those considered vulnerable take their children to childcare centres, while the NSW Berejiklian government has asked parents to keep their children at home in response to ballooning infections.

The measures mean childcare services in federally declared hotspots will receive payments of 25 per cent of their pre-lockdown revenue, while after-school carers will be eligible for payments of up to 40 per cent of their pre-lockdown revenue.

The support will begin four weeks after hotspots are declared and complement the Morrison government’s existing financial support for the sector. The extra support will benefit about 4800 providers and 380,000 families, costing about $40m-$50m a week, Education Minister Alan Tudge said.

The payments will be immediately accessible for childcare services in Sydney and the ACT, and for after-school care in Melbourne. Providers will be able to backdate assistance to the scheme’s announcement.

The support will be contingent on the provider’s attendance falling below 50 per cent, maintaining staffing levels, and agreeing to a fee freeze for the duration of support. It is also contingent on providers not accessing other support programs offered by the federal government.

Mr Tudge hoped the financial injections would keep businesses afloat until infections allowed states to reopen, or vaccination rates reached the threshold levels outlined by the Doherty Institute.

“Giving families additional ­absence days and allowing gap-fee waivers has kept many children enrolled and means services have still been able to receive the childcare subsidy even if kids haven’t attended,” he said.

“The measures will encourage services to pass on gap-fee waivers to parents, meaning those keeping their kids home during lockdown won’t be paying out-of-pocket costs when they aren’t using the service.”