The number of hours of Child Care Subsidy that your family receives is dependent on the number of Activity hours that you undertake each fortnight. This is called the Activity Test. You will be asked to estimate your fortnightly Activity Test hours in your Child Care Subsidy Assessment. Details of that can be found here.

If your family earns above $68,163 per year, the hours of Subsidy per child that you receive are:

8+ > 16 hours a fortnight of Activity = 36 hours a fortnight of Subsidy

16+ > 48 hours a fortnight of Activity = 72 hours a fortnight of Subsidy

48+ hours a fortnight of Activity = 100 hours a fortnight of Subsidy

The number of hours a fortnight are measured against the parent with the lowest number of hours performed each fortnight.

ok, so, what meets the Activity Test?

It’s a long list but there are a few things worth knowing

• • paid work
  • paid leave (annual, sick, long service etc)
  • self employed work
  • unpaid work in the family business
  • training to improve your work skills
  • approved study
  • volunteering
  • looking for work will meet 8 hours a week of the Activity Test which can be combined with other Activities
  • travel time between the child care service and parents place of activity – but try to be reasonable
  • they can all be added together
  • they dont have to be performed during the hours that the child care service is being provided
  • you dont have to provide proof of the number of hours when estimating
  • but there might be spot checks – so be reasonable
  • casual workers will need to estimate their Activity Test over a three month period – include the fortnight with the highest number of hours in your estimate
  • If you receive a Carer Payment you will automatically undertake 100 hours a fortnight towards the Activity Test.
  • If you receive a Carer Allowance you will automatically undertake 72 hours a fortnight towards the Activity Test. However if you have a partner and they have less hours of activity than you, their hours will be used to determine your Subsidy
  • Grandparents who are primary carers for their grandchildren don’t need to undertake any hours to receive the Subsidy
  • Teachers can apply the same number of hours during the school holidays as they would during term time for the Activity Test
  • Paid and Unpaid Parental Leave is included as an activity. The number of hours used for the Activity Test is the number of hours a fortnight that you were working before going on leave. There is no longer a 12 month maximum of parental leave in order to receive child care payments. However there should be an expectation that you will be returning to your job as part of your employment.

What else?

If you would like more information on the new Child Care Subsidy, I have prepared The Child Care Subsidy Solution. A simple, straight forward FREE ebook that explains exactly what the new Subsidy is all about. You can download a copy by entering your details below.