We now know that we wont automatically transfer across from the Child Care Benefit to the new Child Care Subsidy. For this to happen, you must complete a Child Care Subsidy Assessment before 2 July 2018 to continue to received Child Care funding. This post has the instructions to help you do this quickly. Honestly I got it done in about 7 minutes however my husband and I have regular hours so there wasn’t anything we needed to calculate.
I updated my information in the Centrelink App, but if you log into your my.Gov.au account you will also be presented with a list of Tasks to complete.
1. I have two tasks to complete and I press the Task button and swipe to the Child Care Subsidy assessment.
2. There are four tasks that need to be completed
3. The first task asks for your estimated income in the 2018-19 financial year. Complete this in the exactly the same way you have done each year that you have accessed the Childcare Benefit. Add together any salary, fringe benefits tax, child support etc. You could estimate this amount, but I would give this some serious consideration if you think that your family could be near the amount of $186,958. Family income over this amount is subject to a cap each year. For the 2018/19 year it has been indexed up to $10,190.
4. You then need to put in an estimate of the number of hours a fortnight that you and your partner meet the Activity Test, for a full list of Activities you can include refer to this post, but the main items you count hours for are:
- Paid Work – including maternity or paternity leave, long service leave and annual leave
- Study
- Training
- Unpaid internship or work experience
- Volunteering
- Setting up a business
- Unpaid work in a family business
- Looking for work
- Caring for a child or adult with a disability
If you are in casual work – and therefore the number of hours you perform a work activity is different each fortnight, you will be asked to estimate the highest number of hours you expect to work in any fortnight over a three month period. This is the part that may take the most time to calculate.
I used the current date as a start date.
You can add a new Activity Test for each different activity you perform each fortnight. Just use the plus sign at the bottom.
5. Review the school details of each child that you have currently enrolled for Childcare Benefit. If your child is not yet at school then select none. Otherwise select Primary Education is they are enrolled at school.
6. Confirm all your information and you will receive a Claim ID.
What else?
If you want the easy explanation about all the new changes, I have prepared The Child Care Subsidy Solution. A simple, straight forward FREE ebook that shows you how the new Subsidy works and what you could do to increase your Subsidy. Download your copy by entering your details below.
Hi there, do you know why the online estimator for the subsidy asks you to estimate the value of your household contents and also include any other real estate? I wondered if they expect you to include a super balance as part of this?
Hi Emma,
When Centrelink use your income estimate to determine how much of the Subsidy (or Benefit in the old way) you are entitled to, they use a method called the Adjusted Taxable Income. It’s more than just your salary, it also includes any fringe benefits, adds back any loss on investment in property or any super paid as a salary sacrifice. By asking for you to estimate all those other items it allows them to calculate the Adjusted Taxable Income rather than just including your salary and wages. Only include super if you expect to pay any extra or if you claim an amount as an expense in your tax return. If you want to read more about Adjusted Taxable Income here is the link to the ATO website: https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Tax-Return/2017/Tax-return/Adjusted-taxable-income-(ATI)-for-you-and-your-dependants-2017/?=redirected
Lisa
Many thanks Lisa! That makes sense 🙂
Hi I can’t remember from last time and I can’t find any information. Do you include Super when you are calculating income?
Thanks
Hi Kate,
Generally you don’t include Super. BUT, if you are contributing Super above the 9.5% required by an employer then any extra amount does need to be included. If you are not sure if you are contributing extra, you would have specifically had to organise it yourself (it’s not automatic). Also it will appear in a previous tax return as a ‘Reportable Employer Super Contribution’ as part of your income section. If you are Self Employed it would be the amount in your tax return that is a deduction for any Super Contribution. Let me know if any of that doesn’t make sense!