Families in Hume are being encouraged to sign on and start their changeover to the Coalition Government’s new child care and early learning system which starts on 2 July 2018.

Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor said with more than 6600 local families to benefit from the new package, it was time for them to “make the switch” to the overhauled system.

“The online transition portal we’ve set up is live and it’s time for people to take action,” Mr Taylor said.

“Our new child care package will provide the greatest hours of support to the families who work the longest hours, and the greatest subsidy and financial support to the families who earn the least.

“With more support for more Hume families just around the corner, families should visit www.education.gov.au/childcare and make the switchover as soon as they can so they’re ready for the new system from day one.”

The Coalition’s overhaul of child care and early learning subsidies - and an extra $2.5 billion investment in the system - will introduce hourly rate caps to put downward pressure on fee increases and abolish the annual rebate cap for most families.

“Families earning up to $186,958 will no longer be limited by an annual $7,613 cap on the amount of child care they can access – that’s more than 85 per cent of families using child care and early learning, and means families won’t run out of subsidy mid-year,” Mr Taylor said.

“Our new hourly fee cap will also help put downward pressure on fee increases.”

Hourly rate caps will rise from $11.55 to $11.77 for Centre Based Day Care, $10.70 to $10.90 for Family Day Care, whilst families with children in Outside School Hours Care will also see their hourly rate cap rise from $10.10 to $10.29.

Families are required to transition to the system by providing additional information through MyGov or via www.education.gov.au/childcare where they can also explore some additional information about the package.