Day Care Rebate- Need help with estimate!

[Ella]

Hi Ladies,
Like many other families, we are experiencing lots of money troubles at the moment and I'm doing the figures and considering going back to work.

I'm not sure what the rebate amount is for day care and am wondering if anyone can help???

Our combined income for the last tax year was $27,000. Could someone please let me know about how much I will have to pay out for day care, or how much you pay if you are in a similar position??

Thanks in advance

Ella

[BrightSparkles]

Depends whether you go to a centre or FDC as to how much you will.
Your % is based on you combined income. And then as long as your daycare is approved you'll recieve 50% of your out of pocket expenses back.
You probably already know this but HTH,
xx

[Ella]

Jenni- Do you mean that we get 50% back no matter what and then the amount on top of that is dependent on our income???

Do I have to contact centrelink to find out how much or is the information available on their site???

[BrightSparkles]

Your out of pocket expenses are what you physically pay to the childcare centre after the % is taken into account. So if your fees are normally $250 a week and you only pay $150 a week you would get 50% of the $150 back as long as the centre is an approved centre.

[PinkPalace]

the 50% extra rebate is if you are working.

[BrightSparkles]

the 50% extra rebate is if you are working.

YES...i forgot to add that in

[Ella]

thanks girls.

I just spoke to family assistance office and they told me that my percetage benefit is 97% not that I know what that means... lol

[Floweryfields]

If you are using LDC - based on you can earn up to $32000 combined income and receive maximum childcare benefit.

97% means you will get 97% of the hourly rate paid by the government. You need to understand that most centres charge above the hourly rate (much as with a doctor who charges over the scheduled fee).
So to simplify it (hopefully), at my centre, the full price is $55/day. A family on full CCB - 100% pays around $7.50/day - so you are looking at (depending on what the centre charges) around $10 per day.
This varies slightly dependant on the number of days you use, and your hour allowance from centrelink.
Working families normally are allowed 50 hours of care per week (that they pay the reduction for), not working families usually only get 24 hours of care.
Centres usually charge for a full 12 hour (maybe 10 or 11) day - so to avoid paying full price for the 5 day (as centrelink only pays 2hours of your 5th day) you are best off using 4 days per week or less.

As already mentioned, if you are working, you will also get 50% of your part of fees back each quarter - so in reality, you are only paying maybe $5/day for care!

[PinkPalace]

means 97% of the cc benefit.
So usually it is about $3 so you will get almost the whole $3 per hour off.
so depending on how expensive your carer is - i know mine is $9 an hour, so you would pay $6 - then if you are working you will get $3 per hour back again per 1/4

[Ella]

Wow. That's amazing.... $10 a day I wish I had known this sooner! I was thinking there was no point going back to work as I would just end up working to pay chilcare costs!

[Floweryfields]

One other thing to consider - did you at in what you will be earning when you got that percentage from centrelink?

[Ella]

Yes I certainly did!