cost of childcare for more then one child

[teresa]

Hi lovely ladies

DH and I were talking the other night about childcare and were wondering if you had more then one child in child care, do u pay the full rate for all children or do you get a small discount if you have more then one child in there itms. i had heard it is cheaper the more children you have but wasnt sure.

TIA xx

[FabFiona]

Nope we pay the full rate per child. The toddler room is slightly cheaper but we still pay the full rate per room for my two sons.

[teresa]

ok. so what about the CCB and CCR?

[feeb]

Yes same price, where my kids go over 3 is cheaper by $5. You get 50% CCR CCB is means tested don't know much about that.

[Hansie]

If you're entitled to CCB your % maybe lower slightly if you had two children in care but you would need to weigh it up in your own circumstances. The reduction is not that much in the grand scheme of things. For us it was not worth it. After paying child care fees for 2, petrol, tolls & stress 3 days a week to get everybody ready morning & evening. I would come home with $20 a fortnight.
Use the calculator on FAO site & put 2 children in to see what your estimated % would be. I did this in the lead up to returning back to work to work out the best option for us.
In terms of the daycare offering lower fees no they would have charged the same. Although as FabFiona has said DS1's would have been cheaper just because of his age.

[teresa]

thanks everyone.

i tried the estimator and its really not much different. we already pay $76 a day for DS to attend now and its only when he goes up to the kindy room that his fees get cheaper.

thank you for all your replies

xx

[Floweryfields]

You get higher ccb for 2 children. If you get 100% for 1 you get 104% for 2 children in care. So it makes the fees for both cheaper. CCR you still get 50% of the gap back, regardless of no. of children it's 50% of what you pay. Remember CCR is capped (can't remember what the cap is).