Absences for Child Care Benefit (CCB) and JET Child Care fee assistance (JETCCFA) 007-03060040

A parent receiving CCB for approved care, CCR or JETCCFA contacts the child care service to advise that their child will be absent from care that day and gives the reason for the absence.

CCB, CCR and JETCCFA can be paid for 42 absence days for any reason per child per financial year across services. Absences cannot be claimed for a period before the child commences care or after they have left care (including notice period).

Public holidays are counted as an absence and are not payable as an additional absence over the 42 day limit.

Evidence is required for CCB and JETCCFA to be paid for absence days above the limit. The service will request any supporting documentation required.

The child care service:

• decides whether the absence is an allowable absence or an additional absence day (approved absence)
• provides parents with an update of how many absences they have used, this can be provided on the receipt or other statement

Note: CCB, CCR and JETCCFA are not payable on unapproved absences over the 42 absence day limit.

The service includes absence days in child care attendance reported weekly to the Department of Social Services.

The Department of Social Services pays CCB for approved care weekly in arrears to the child care service based on CCB fee reduction details transferred to them by Services Australia.

The Department of Social Services transfers child care attendance details to Services Australia for reconciliation of the customer's CCB.

View absences:

• online
• Families Assistance > View Child Care Attendance

If it is identified that a child has had 42 allowable absence days across services, CCB and JETCCFA will only be paid for the child for a further absence in the financial year if it is an approved additional absence.

Child care attendance used to calculate the customer's correct CCB entitlement for the relevant year can be viewed from the CCB Calculation Period Assessment (CPAC) screen.

For services, the absent day count for the week is displayed. The service can be selected to display the absence dates and whether or not CCB was paid for the absence.

To view a child’s absences from CCB approved child care for a week, in Customer First:

• go to Workspace > Family Assistance >View Child care attendance
• from the View child care attendance page, select the relevant year and week from the drop down menus
• select the child to be viewed and 'Show/Hide details'

A summary will display showing the selected child’s absences for the selected week.

When viewing a child’s weekly view, select 'Show/Hide Child Care Centres'

The last summary on this page is the information that was sent via the Department of Education in response to the receipt of attendance information.

This summary includes the total absences Year to Date (YTD) for the financial year (i.e. 1 July to 30 June of the relevant year).

To find out if an absence has been disregarded for a week:

• Step 1 - View the number of absences for the given week e.g. 3
• Step 2 - View the current Year to Date (YTD) absences in the information sent to the Department of Education for the given week e.g. 10
• Step 3 - View the YTD absences for the previous week e.g. 8

Next:

• Step 4 -Take the given week’s YTD absences (from Step 2), and subtract the previous week’s YTD absences (from Step 3) e.g. 10 - 8

This equals an increase in YTD absences of 2.

Then:

• Step 5 - Take the given week’s absences (from Step 1) i.e. 3, and subtract the increase of the YTD absences (result from Step 4) i.e. 3 - 2

This equals 1 disregarded absence for the week.