Changes to child care rebate system in 2018 will change eligibility rules
- Written by Our Child Care
The changes to Australia's child care rebate system which come into effect in 2018 will toughen up the eligibility rules for receipt of child care payments. Under the new system, parents must be doing at least eight hours of work, study or volunteering to be eligible for payments. This is likely to push many families out of the child care system.
With the cost of child care increasing and the impending system changes likely to affect many families, alternative options such as 'Our Child Care' are growing in popularity.
The website entitled ‘Our Child Care’ is the brainchild of a group of Melbourne based parents who have not only raised their own children and dealt with the challenges of child care centres, they have also owned child care centres.
“The child care centre industry is a booming industry in Australia and it is doesn’t really benefit anyone but the centre operators,” Co-founder and CEO of Our Child Care Ms Chronopoulos said today.
“Centre operators keep getting richer, child care fees keep going up and parents and families are the ones being squeezed. The sad truth is that child care workers don’t get paid very well either.
“I’ve been through the difficult times where I’ve had to pull the kids out of bed early in the morning, drop them to day care, go to work and then pick them up later in the evening. It is a stressful time for everyone and awful for the kids. If you don’t have family nearby to help you, you don’t have any other choice.
“In speaking with my friends and family, I decided there had to be a better way. There had to be a better system of child care that was more affordable, more flexible and more community based – and so a few of us got together and created Our Child Care.”
Our Child Care is an online platform that connects parents with child carers. Child carers include child care workers, au pairs, nannies, babysitters, tutors and teachers.
Parents can find carers by either listing a job on the site or searching carers who have registered with the site. Parents and guardians are able to choose a child carer who will look after their children in a more personalised and devoted environment for a fraction of the fees that childcare centres charge.
“I believe Our Child Care will revolutionise the future of child care in Australia, making it more accessible, flexible, affordable and reliable and above all educational and safe for parents and care givers,” Ms Chronopoulos added.
“The site will provide professional and non-professional child carers with the scope to establish and operate their own businesses from any premises – giving them a fairer and more equitable working environment.
“The other key element is that Our Child Care also provides professional indemnity and public liability insurance for carers who secure work through the site.
“For parents, the new system will also give them more control over who cares for their child, what they learn, with whom and for less cost.
“Services will cover day, night and weekend child care to kinder programs, school drop offs and pickups, vacation care and even weekend drop offs for out of school activities that can be difficult especially when families have two or more children.”
The platform will also assist in providing tips to child carers in relation to setting up their own home business and the tax advantages of operating a business from home. This includes applying for the Child Care Benefit and addressing the Department of Human Services’ guidelines for home based child care services as well as all the other relevant checks.