Transition arrangements for Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) 007-17103160

CCS and ACCS will replace the existing suite of child care payments:

• Child Care Benefit (CCB)
• Child Care Rebate (CCR)
• Special Child Care Benefit (Child at risk and Temporary financial hardship)
• Grandparent Child Care Benefit (GCCB)
• Jobs, Education and Training Child Care fee assistance (JETCCFA)

Customers who are CCB as reduced fees (CCF) and CCR as reduced fees prior to 2 July 2018 will be assessed for CCS without needing to lodge a full new claim. This is called a deemed claim. Although current customers are not required to lodge a new claim for CCS, they are required to provide additional information to be assessed for CCS via the call to action (CTA) process.

Notifications to CCF and CCR (current) customers were issued in April 2018 asking them to provide the additional information required to be assessed for CCS. The additional information required will be dependent on the customer’s circumstances.

CCB for approved care Lump Sum Claim (LSC) customers will be sent a letter in April 2018 advising them about CCS and the requirement for them to lodge a new claim for CCS to receive child care assistance for any care provided from 2 July 2018. From mid-April 2018, families can pre-claim for CCS in readiness for 2 July 2018.

JETCCFA customers received the standard CTA notification in April. They will also receive an invitation to claim letter for ACCS (transition to work) in June when ACCS (transition to work) pre-claims are available.

Customers who have not provided their CTA information will receive a reminder notification in May 2018.

To continue receiving child care fee assistance from 2 July 2018, current CCF/CCR customers must provide the following information as part of the CTA process:

• 2018-2019 estimate of family income
• CCS Activity Test details for themselves and their partner (including any information required to assess an Activity Test exemption)
• School status of their child (if not already recorded), that is the date a child started or is expected to start primary school and/or the date a child started or is expected to start secondary school
• confirmation of their child’s enrolment. All customers are required to confirm their child’s enrolment details as part of the CTA process. For transition, simplified enrolment details will be provided by the child care service for all children attending their service
• TFN and bank details (if not already provided)

If a current CCF customer contacts and wishes to add a new child to their CCB, Service Officers are to use the Assisted Customer Claim. Staff are not to use the CCF New Claim guided procedure as this does not have the additional questions for the customer to be assessed for CCS and a CCS assessment will not be triggered for the new child once the claim is processed.

To continue receiving child care fee assistance, current Grandparent CCF customers will need to transition to CCS by providing the basic CTA information (as above).

Current GCCB customers will be asked if they want to be assessed for Additional Child Care Subsidy (Grandparent) when completing their CTA assessment. If yes, they may be required to provide evidence to support the application.

Lump Sum Claimants (LSC) will not be streamlined for transition, as they are not considered CCF current. To be assessed for CCS they must lodge a new CCS claim, preferably via online services.

CCF lump sum claimants will have three options:

• CCS Pre-claim:
• Complete a CCS new claim from April 2018
• Lodge a LSC to access CCF/CCR entitlement for 2017-18
• Combined CCF/CCS claim:
• Complete a CCF claim for ongoing fee reduction from mid-April 2018, which will include the expanded CCS questions
• Lodge a LSC to access the balance of CCF entitlement for 2017-18
• CCS new claim:
• Complete a CCS new claim between 2 and 29 July 2018 to have CCS backdated to 2 July 2018
• Lodge a LSC to access CCF/CCR entitlement for 2017-18

Note: LSC families should be encouraged to lodge a CCS pre-claim as soon as possible after April 2018 to ensure they do not miss any entitlement. For example, if a CCS claim is not lodged until October 2018, it can only be backdated up to 28 days, meaning they will miss fee assistance for the period from 2 July 2018 to the start date of their CCS claim.

To continue receiving child care assistance, JETCCFA customers need to provide the basic CTA information.

They may also qualify for ACCS (transition to work). To determine their eligibility, they will need to lodge an application for ACCS (transition to work).

• Customers can provide their basic CTA information from April 2018
• Current JETCCFA customers are issued a notice on 4 June 2018 inviting them to apply for ACCS (transition to work)
• Encourage customers to apply for ACCS (Transition to Work) as soon as possible after 4 June 2018, to ensure they do not miss out on any additional fee assistance as there are no backdating provisions for ACCS (transition to work)
• If the customer does not apply for ACCS (transition to work) before 2 July 2018, they will not be assessed for this payment. However, CCS will be assessed if basic CTA information is provided

Where basic CTA information is provided before 4 June 2018, customers will receive a CCS assessment outcome letter, and the ACCS (transition to work) letter will be issued separately once this has been lodged and assessed.

SCCB Child at Risk is being replaced by ACCS (child wellbeing), with all SCCB payments ceasing on 1 July 2018. SCCB will not ‘transition’ to ACCS (child wellbeing).

As customers receiving SCCB are CCF current, they were selected for the CCS CTA process in April 2018 and will be assessed for CCS only.

Where the child care service believes a family should have access to ACCS (child wellbeing), they will be required to take appropriate action to help families access ACCS from 2 July 2018.

SCCB Temporary financial hardship is being replaced by ACCS (temporary financial hardship), with all SCCB payments ceasing on 1 July 2018. SCCB will not ‘transition’ to ACCS (temporary financial hardship).

As customers receiving SCCB are CCF current, they were selected for the CCS CTA process from April 2018 and will be assessed for CCS only.

Families still experiencing temporary financial hardship will need to apply for ACCS (temporary financial hardship) from 2 July 2018. (This differs to SCCB where applications and eligibility determinations were managed by the child care service.)

CCS is only payable for child care provided by approved child care services. There are no provisions for child care fee assistance for children attending registered care.

Existing Registered Care customers (CCI) and Providers (RCP) were notified via a targeted letter on 14 February 2018 that CCI and RCP are ceasing. This letter was intended to give this group an extended time frame in which to make alternative child care arrangements.

Claims for CCI and approval as an RCP may still be lodged up until 2 July 2019 for periods of care provided prior to 2 July 2018. However, CCI claims can only be lodged up to 12 months after the care was provided.

Claims lodged for CCI or RCP with a Date of Receipt of 2 July 2019 or later will be rejected.

Customers can provide CTA information via:

• Online services
• Express Plus Mobile App
• verbally, recorded by Service Officers via a Virtual Assistance (Roxy) script in Process Direct, or
• as part of an updated combined claim for CCF and CCS. (New claims for CCF will be updated to include the CCS questions from early April 2018)

It is important a customer completes their CTA before 2 July 2018. If they have not completed their CCS assessment, their child care service will be unable to apply a child care subsidy fee reduction and this may result in them being charged full fees by their child care service.

If a CCF/CCR customer fails to complete their CTA before 2 July 2018, they have an additional 6 CCS fortnights from 2 July 2018 (until 23 September 2018) to provide the required information. No payments will be made to the child care service during this time.

The CCS assessment can be completed during this extended period (without the need for a review or appeal, or lodging a CCS new claim) using the CCS CTA transition channels:

• Online services (accessed via myGov or the Express Plus App)
• verbally via Smart Centres where information will be recorded in Process Direct

If the CTA information is provided on or before 23 September, CCS/ACCS (grandparent) eligibility and entitlement will be assessed with a start date of 2 July 2018. The customer and the child care service will be notified of the outcome. Any arrears owed due to late completion of CTA will be paid directly to the customer.

Customers, who need to lodge a full claim for CCS, are able to lodge claims for CCS and applications for ACCS prior to 2 July in readiness for implementation.

• Pre 2 July 2018, claims for CCS and ACCS (grandparent) became available in April 2018 (noting current CCF/CCR current customers are not required to lodge a pre-claim)
• Applications for ACCS (transition to work) will be available from 4 June 2018. All customers wishing to be assessed for ACCS (transition to work) from 02 July 2018 will need to lodge an application regardless of the JETCCFA status

Note: applications for ACCS (temporary financial hardship) and ACCS (child wellbeing) will not be available before 2 July 2018.

Families are still able to lodge claims for legacy child care payments for any sessions of care provided before 2 July 2018.

• A lump sum claim can be made by 30 June 2019 for approved care provided in the 2017-2018 financial year
• A claim for registered care (CCI) for care provided prior to 2 July 2018 can be lodged up to 12 months after the care was provided, meaning claims can be lodged up to 1 July 2019

See Child Care Benefit suite of Operational Blueprint files for information relating to care provided before 2 July 2018.