More on Child Care Benefit/Rebate Your questions answered We received a flood of enquiries from parents regarding our article on Child Care Benefit and the Child Care Rebate in last month's newsletter. There still seems to be some confusion over eligibility. This month we've looked into some of the more confusing issues that you raised: Stay At Home Parents and the Child Care Benefit While families with only one parent working may be eligible to receive other benefits such as the Family Tax Benefit, in order to be eligible for Child Care Benefit (and therefore Rebate), if your child attends approved care, BOTH parents must be working or studying for at least 15 hours each per week or 30 hours over a fortnight. So mums or dads who are stay at home parents and not working (paid work that is – we know being a full time parent is most definitely “work”!) or studying in any capacity are not eligible for Child Care Benefit and will therefore not receive the Rebate either. However, if your child is in "registered" child care (see below for the definition of registered care), parents don’t actually have to meet any minimum hourly work or study requirements. They simply have to prove they are working or studying in some capacity. For more information on work requirements for Child Care Benefit, see work, training, study test on the Family Assistance website to see if you qualify. Child Care Benefit and Registered Carers. There is still some confusion over the eligibility of parents who have "registered" carers for their children, such as nannies. Registered carers are not simply carers registered with an agency. In order for child care to be deemed Registered by Family Assistance, this child care must be for work related purposes, and can be provided by grandparents, relatives, friends or nannies who are registered as carers with the Family Assistance Office. Registered care may also be provided by individuals in private preschools, kindergartens; some outside school hours care services and some occasional care centres and carers or teachers in these services must be registered with the Family Assistance Office. Parents can claim up to 50 hours of Child Care Benefit a week for each child in registered care if both parents are working or looking for work, training, studying or exempt from this requirement. (For more information see work, training, study test). Your family's income does not affect the amount of Child Care Benefit you can get for registered care, but it is important to note that you cannot get the Child Care Rebate for registered care. Confusing Error on Family Assistance Child Care Rebate Page Parents have noted that there is a confusing error on the Family Assistance website relating to eligibility for Child Care REBATE. At the time of going to press, the note on familyassist.gov.au read: "*Please Note: There is no income test for the Child Care Benefit. If you are eligible for the Child Care Rebate, but your entitlement is zero due to income. You are still eligible for the Child Care Rebate." This is wrong… it should read "There is no income test for the Child Care REBATE. If you are eligible for the Child Care BENEFIT, but your entitlement is zero due to income, you are still eligible for the Child Care Rebate." We have been advised by the Family Assistance Office that this error is being dealt with and the website will soon be updated.

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