Hume families are set for child care cost relief - and their children will benefit from more learning opportunities as part of Turnbull Government reforms to the system.

Member for Hume Angus Taylor said the changes would help families who were finding that fees and expenses put access to child care and early learning out of reach.

“We know the cost pressures families face so we’ve taken action to overhaul a broken system to deliver more affordable, accessible and flexible services for families and children,” he said.

“Our changes will inject $1.6 billion of additional investment into the system - with around one million families across the country to be better off - including many of the 7540 families in Hume who use child care and early learning services.”

Mr Taylor said the reforms were designed with regional and rural early childhood education and care services and their families in mind.

They target support to people working the most and earning the least - and will encourage more than 230,000 families to return to the workforce.

“Many services in regional and rural areas are part of the old ‘Budget Based Funded’ system that has capped funding and is closed to new services, but under our reforms they will also have access to hundreds of millions of dollars in additional support and a funding guarantee,” Mr Taylor said.

The reforms come into effect from 1 July 2018 and there are three key features:

• Better support for people working the most and earning the least
• Relief from the rebate cap
• Downward pressure on incessant fee increases

“Our reforms also include stronger compliance powers to further stamp out rorting, more flexibility for the hours child care centres open, and additional investment for services to support children from disadvantaged backgrounds or with additional needs,” Mr Taylor said.

“I look forward to discussing the reforms with families across Hume and to seeing the benefits flow.”

In coming weeks the Government will begin communicating the changes to families and services, and a calculator will be available for families to determine how the reforms will benefit them.

For further information on the reforms, visit www.education.gov.au/jobsforfamilies

More details:

• Our reforms also include a ‘Child Care Safety Net’ that represents additional investment for services to support children from disadvantaged backgrounds or with additional needs such as disability.
• The Child Care Safety Net will also ensure families who do not meet the activity test and are earning $65,710 or less have access to 24 hours of subsidised care per fortnight so they have opportunities to look for employment or more work if they are in a position to do so, and so that their children have access to early learning opportunities.
• Other elements of our reforms will deliver stronger compliance powers that build on the $1 billion our actions and other legislation have stopped going out the door to people attempting to rort the child care system.
• These detailed reforms are the result of consultation with experts, input from the Productivity Commission and three Senate inquiries and they are the most significant improvements to the system in 40 years.
• Examples of benefits:
  
  • A family on $50,000 - both parent/s working, with two children aged under 6 in long day care three days a week at $100 a day will be $3,295 better off a year
  • A family on $80,000 - both parent/s working, with two children aged under 6 in long day care three days a week at $100 a day will be $3,424 better off a year.
  • A family on $94,000 - both parent/s working, with two children aged under 6 in long day care two days a week at $100 a day will be $1,771 better off a year
  • A family on $150,000 – both parent/s working, with two children aged 6 and under in long day care three days a week at $100 a day will be $1,626 better off a year