Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) (child wellbeing) 007-17103154

The intent of ACCS (child wellbeing) is to reduce the cost of child care being a barrier to children ‘at risk’ from entering or remaining engaged with child care. It allows the providers to respond to immediate and emerging situations by giving practical support.

ACCS (child wellbeing) provides additional fee assistance to support vulnerable or disadvantaged families and children. The subsidy is targeted at children already known to be ‘at risk’ (for example, child under a protection order), as well as children and families before they reach crisis point and become subject to the state or territory mandatory reporting system.

ACCS (child wellbeing) is first in the hierarchy of ACCS payments.

ACCS (child wellbeing) provides eligible customers with:

• subsidy equal to 100% of the fee charged, up to 120% of the hourly rate cap
• up to 100 hours of subsidised care per fortnight (regardless of the activity level of the customer and/or partner)

If the customer has received ACCS (child wellbeing) continuously for a period of 6 months and it has been less than 18 months since the child wellbeing period ended for the child they will be exempt from the activity test for a further 18 months for the child, once ACCS (child wellbeing) has ceased.

If the customer contacts advising this exemption is not applying, send to Level 2 Helpdesk for exceptional circumstance consideration and coding. Note: the higher activity test result of 100 hours only applies at the child level. This means each child would need to have received ACCS (child wellbeing) for a continuous period of 6 months to be eligible for up to 100 hours of care per fortnight for up to 18 months after the ACCS (child wellbeing) ceased.

The child care service, rather than an individual, seeks eligibility for ACCS (child wellbeing) for a child. The child care service can do this by:

• issuing a certificate, for up to 6 weeks in any 12 month period that a child is or was at risk of serious abuse or neglect
• applying to Services Australia to make a determination for a longer period

The agency will assess further ACCS (child wellbeing) for:

• up to 13 weeks at a time, or
• periods of up to 52 weeks if the child is:
• on a long term protection order
• in formal foster / kinship care, or
• enrolled in one of the services participating in the Early Years Education Program

In most cases, the child care service must give a certificate or certificates totalling 6 weeks before they can apply to the agency for a determination. The child care service must issue a certificate or apply for a determination via their Practice management Software (PMS) or via the Provider Entry Portal (PEP). Based on the circumstance of the child and the child care service the system will determine if a certificate or a determination is appropriate.

In most cases children will be enrolled at a child care service under a Complying Written Agreement (CWA) enrolment type. For CWA enrolment types both of the following need to have occurred before payment of child care subsidy (CCS or ACCS) will be made to the child care service.

• The child care service has either issued a certificate or had a determination application approved by Services Australia, and
• An individual is eligible for CCS for the child

In rare circumstances, it may be possible that the individual carer of the child is not eligible for CCS (for example, the carer does not meet the CCS residency requirements). In this event, the child care service can make themselves eligible for ACCS. To do this the child care service enrols the child using a Provider Eligible Arrangement (PEA) enrolment type. The child care service can also use this enrolment type where the child is in formal foster / kinship care. For this group the PEA enrolment cannot exceed 13 weeks per service for the child. In this time the provider is expected to work with the family to:

• ensure that the new foster / kinship carer makes an application to confirm their CCS eligibility, and
• transition them to a CWA enrolment

In the majority of cases, payment of CCS and ACCS cannot be made to the service until the individual has claimed and been assessed as eligible for CCS for the child. It is important to advise the customer to lodge an application for CCS for the child as soon as possible.

Generally, circumstances would be considered exceptional when these circumstances apply to a particular child or family only and if they have a severe impact on the family in terms of:

• being able to access child care
• pay for child care, or
• the hours of care needed

In exceptional circumstances, customers can apply to receive an assessment that is higher than 120% of the relevant hourly rate cap and/or access more than 100 hours of subsidised child care.

More than 120% - customers can request to be considered for more than 120%. These cases are to be referred to their child care service for assessment.

More than 100 hours - customers experiencing exceptional circumstances can apply to Services Australia to access more than 100 hours of subsidised child care per fortnight. The maximum number of hours that can be considered is 24 hours per day (24 x 14 = 336 per fortnight) in extreme cases.

Applications for increased hours are assessed on a case-by-case basis. See Exceptional circumstances for Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS).

Children who have been placed in the care of the state/territory or the Minister, will be taken to be ‘at risk’ for the purpose of ACCS (child wellbeing). Children in formal foster care placement (or formal kinship placement) are also considered to meet the definition of 'at risk'.

Individuals in receipt of ACCS (child wellbeing) are required to meet income and notification provisions for CCS reconciliation.

The CCS reconciliation process (including re-reconciliations) will exclude or rather quarantine all periods where a child was assessed as eligible for ACCS (child wellbeing). Customers will not be reconciled for an ACCS (child wellbeing) period at the child level and the estimate held in the system for those periods will remain in place, that is, actual taxable income (ATI) will not readjust the customers calculated entitlement for those periods.

Note: the quarantining rule is effective under either a certificate or determination.

Under no circumstances should Services Australia (including specialists e.g. Social Workers, Grandparent, Foster and Kinship Carer Advisers, Multicultural Service Officers) have direct contact with service providers. Nor is it the responsibility of the agency to act as a liaison point between customers and their providers.

The only exception would be where staff in the Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) processing team are required to contact the provider to advise of an ACCS (child wellbeing) application adverse outcome.

Service providers have been informed of the correct channels to escalate their enquiries through which is via the Department of Education.

Individual’s wishing to claim/access ACCS (child wellbeing) should contact their child care service as certificates or determination applications can only be initiated by the child care service.

Non-parent carers who have taken on the parental responsibilities for a child may also benefit from the services of a Grandparent, Foster and Kinship Carer Adviser. These advisers:

• provide tailored information about Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support payments and support services specific to the circumstances of individual families
• arrange appointments for non-parent carers with specialist staff, including social workers, Financial Information Service (FIS) Officers, and
• arrange referrals to federal, state and community service providers

From 16 October 2023, Services Australia are responsible for all ACCS (child wellbeing) applications.

Generally a child care service can issue an ACCS (child wellbeing) certificate for children attending their service if they consider the child ‘at risk’. Certificates with a start date of:

• less than 28 days are auto completed
• more than 28 days are assessed for exceptional circumstances by Services Australia

Changes to previously lodged certificates are able to be completed by the child care service or will present to Services Australia for finalisation.

Services Australia is responsible for assessing all ACCS (child wellbeing) determination applications. From 16 October 2023 this includes where the service has requested extended backdating as a result of exceptional circumstances.