Child Care Subsidy

This is a Services Australia payment that helps with the cost of approved child care.

Services Australia pays the subsidy to your child care provider to reduce the fees you pay.

Who can get it

To get Child Care Subsidy you must:

care for a child 13 or younger who's not attending secondary school, unless an exemption applies
use an approved child care service
be responsible for paying the child care fees
meet residency and immunisation requirements.

Find out more about who can get it and how much you can get on the Services Australia website.

You'll need to link Centrelink to your myGov account, if you haven’t already.

Follow the steps to create a myGov account. After you’ve created one, you can link services to your account.

Call the families line on the Services Australia website.

You may be able to get Additional Child Care Subsidy, depending on your circumstances.

Additional Child Care Subsidy for transitioning to work, studying or training
This gives people transitioning to work, study or training extra help with the cost of child care.
Additional Child Care Subsidy for financial hardship
This gives people in temporary financial hardship extra help with the cost of approved child care.
Additional Child Care Subsidy for grandparents
This gives grandparents and great grandparents extra help with the cost of approved child care.

Call the Centrelink multilingual phone service on 131 202 to speak with someone in your language.

Page last updated: 2 February 2024