What Are My Responsibilities for Receiving Child Care Assistance from the Australian Government?

What are my responsibilities for receiving child care assistance from the Australian Government?

What are my responsibilities for receiving child care assistance from the Australian Government?

Fact sheet 8

When receiving Child Care Benefit (CCB), Child Care Rebate (CCR) and Jobs, Education and Training Child Care Fee Assistance (JETCCFA), you are responsible for keeping the Government and your child care service provider up-to-date when your circumstances change.

The child care system is changing from July 2018. As part of the changes, Child Care Benefit (CCB),Child Care Rebate (CCR) and Jobs, Education and Training Child Care Fee Assistance (JETCCFA) will cease on midnight 1 July 2018. For more information about the new child care fee assistance programs please go to

What are my responsibilities with my child care service provider?

You must:

provide your child care service provider/s with your child/ren’s Customer Reference Number and date of birth along with your Customer Reference Number and date of birth(Note: make sure you give the date of birth and Customer Reference Number for the parent or guardian who is claiming CCB)
sign or initial attendance records daily to show when your child starts care (‘time in’) and finishes care (‘time out’)—do not sign blank attendance records
sign or initial attendance records each time your child is absent from care
inform each child care service provider you are using when you have used your initial 42 absence days (only if you receive CCB as a fee reduction) and provide your child care service provider with documents where necessary for:
additional absence days your child is absent from care
an increase in the number of maximum hours you can get paid CCB.

What are my responsibilities with the Government?

You must advise the Department of Human Services within 14 days, when changes happen that may affect your child care payments. These include when:

your care arrangements change, for example, your child stops using child care
your child starts or leaves school
another child starts child care
your or your partner’s income changes
your work, training or study changes
liability for child care costs changes to another person or agency
your personal circumstances change, for example, you change partnering arrangements (opposite or same-sex)—if you get married, registered, separated or divorced
your address or contact details change
your or your partner’s residence status changes
you leave Australia
your bank account details change.

If you do not tell the Department of Human Services about the changes within 14 days your payment may be affected. You may be overpaid benefits and you will have to pay the money back.

If you deliberately do not tell the Department of Human Services about changes, you could be charged with fraud[1], and a recovery fee may be imposed.

How can I get more information?

To access your details or check your eligibility for child care payments, please contact the Department of Human Services by:

visiting Department of Human Services families website[2]
logging on to your Centrelink online account through myGov[3]and selecting ‘Child Care’ and then ‘View Child Care Details and Payments’. If you do not have a myGovaccount, you can create one by visiting myGovand then linking it to your Centrelink online account
using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app and selecting ‘Child Care’. Express Plus Centrelink is available for Apple devices with iOS7+ on the App Store and Android devices with version 4.0 and above on Google Play
visiting a service centre
calling 136150, or
Teletypewriter (TTY) service on 1800810586 if you are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment. You need a TTY phone to use this service
131202 if you need information in a language other than English.

Useful resources

Other useful resources include:

for news and information on child care visit the MyChild website[4]
to estimate and compare payments access the Child Care Estimator[5]
A Guide to Australian Government payments.[6]

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