Child Care Rebate and the winners are...parents! A few months ago we ran a survey which asked what you thought were the three most significant factors that would make the return to work easier for mums and included key points such as more frequent rebate payments, paid maternity leave and all child care to be tax deductible. You said: Higher thresholds for the child care benefit means test, 33.0% More frequent child care rebate payments – fortnightly or monthly in stead of quarterly, 28.1% Paid maternity leave, 31.5% Lower child care fees, 49.8% More flexible working conditions, 56.2% All child care to be tax deductible, 62.1% Nannies and other mothers helps to be eligible for benefits/child care rebate, 33.5% And whaddya know? Since we ran that original survey, paid maternity leave has been passed and is due to commence on January 1 2011 and PM Gillard has also announced the fortnightly rebate payment option. Just goes to show how valuable your opinions are! In July we asked you how you'd be claiming your rebate now that the options are better… a resounding 47 per cent said you would prefer to have your rebate paid to your child care provider every fortnight to get an instant fee reduction. 36 per cent would like the payment into their account every fortnight, 11 per cent would continue with the quarterly lump sum (always a nice surprise!). As to whether the new options will make a positive difference to your monthly financial juggle, 73 per cent said yes it definitely would. Congratulations working mums! That's two wins under our belts out of the seven original criteria. Five more to go...

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