The Child Care Subsidy (CCS)
What is the Child Care Subsidy?
The Child Care Subsidy is a government initiative to help families reduce their out-of-pocket childcare expenses. The initiative is designed to enable families to access affordable, flexible and high-quality childcare.
Since Nido Early School is a government approved childcare provider, you could be entitled to the Child Care Subsidy on your fees.
The Government reduces the amount you may pay for your childcare, to increase the level of care your child can receive. This enables parents or carers to allow their child to attend childcare, so that they can either work or study more hours. Families must meet a number of requirements to qualify for the CCS.
CCS Changes in January 2026 – the 3 Day Guarantee – what does it mean for your family?
From January 2026, the Australian Government is updating the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) to guarantee at least 3 days of subsidised early childhood education and care per week.
This means that all CCS-eligible families will receive at least 72 hours per fortnight (3 days/week) of subsidised childcare regardless of their work, study, or volunteering status.
Families can still access up to 100 hours per fortnight if they work, study, train, or volunteer for 48+ hours per fortnight, or have a valid exemption. First Nations families will automatically receive 100 hours per fortnight.
To be eligible for CCS families must be earning under $533,280 annually (2024–25 threshold) and meet immunisation requirements.
What is the new 3 Day Guarantee?
The 3 Day Guarantee is a new initiative by the Australian Government to increase accessibility of childcare for families across Australia, irrespective of their hours of work, study or volunteering. For CCS-eligible families it guarantees 3 days of childcare per week.
How can my family benefit from these CSS changes in January 2026?
Families that do not currently meet the activity test requirements for study, work or volunteering hours per week, could benefit from 3 days of subsidised childcare under the new 3 Day Guarantee, reducing their out-of-pocket childcare fees.
For families who would like to extend their days from 0,1 or 2 days to 3 days, can now enjoy 3 days per week of government-subsidised childcare under the 3 Day Guarantee from January 2026.
Why is the change to the Child Care Subsidy important?
The 3 Day Guarantee update to the Child Care Subsidy is important because it extends subsidies to more families and allows families to have more consistency and access to early education and care.
Example of the 3 Day Guarantee in action
Taylor and Matt have two children, Jay and Nadine. Both currently attend early education and care for 2 days per week. Jay is 4 years old. His parents would like Jay to attend the highly regarded kindergarten class at their childcare centre for 3 days per week to help him develop school readiness. Nadine is 1 years old. Taylor and Matt have seen her make great progress developing her early learning milestones and would like Nadine also to benefit from 3 days of early education and care per week to continue this development. Presently Taylor does not meet the number of work or study hours per week of the CCS activity test, so they do not have the resources to send Jay and Nadine for 3 days per week.
Under the 3 Day Guarantee in January, Jay and Nadine would receive CCS for 3 days per week which would allow them to attend their early education centre of choice for 3 days per week.
How does the CCS work?
Subsidies are paid directly to Nido Early School, and we then pass them to you as a fee reduction. You then pay the difference between the subsidy and the fees charged.
How much Child Care Subsidy can I receive?
Child Care Subsidy is calculated using:
- Your combined family income
- The number of children under five you have in childcare
- The level of activity you may be doing; if you are studying or volunteering, this may work in your favour towards your childcare subsidy
- Your childcare provider’s hourly rate
Families with more than one child aged five or under in care can get a higher subsidy. The higher CCS will be paid to their second child and younger children.
Eligible children will get a 30% higher subsidy up to a maximum of 95%. If you have children born on the same day, such as twins, Services Australia should be contacted to ensure one child is determined as receiving the standard CCS rate with the other, the higher rate.
Who is eligible for CCS?
Families must meet eligibility criteria to get CCS.
Parents must:
- Care for their child at least 2 nights per fortnight or have 14% share of care
- Be liable for child care fees at an approved child care service
- Meet residency requirements
Their child must:
- Meet immunisation requirements
- Not be attending secondary school (unless an exemption applies)
- Be 13 or under (except in certain circumstances)
If a child doesn’t attend a session of care at least once in 26 consecutive weeks, they will stop being eligible for CCS. If a child starts to attend care again, a family can make a new claim for CCS.
Additional Support
Some families can get additional Child Care Subsidy to provide extra support with childcare fees.
There are four different types of additional Child Care Subsidy that you can apply for if you’re either:
- a grandparent
- transitioning to work
- experiencing temporary financial hardship
- caring for a child who is vulnerable or at risk of harm, abuse, or neglect
Approved childcare
These childcare services have Australian Government approval to obtain Child Care Subsidy to reduce fees on your behalf:
- Centre Based Day Care, including long day care and occasional care
- Family Day Care
- Outside School Hours Care, including before, after and vacation care
- In Home Care
Options to increase your subsidy
Activities such as studying and volunteering also work in your favour towards your childcare subsidy. Taking some extra time to follow your interests or develop some new skills, even through online learning platforms like Coursera, or other online TAFE and university courses, will count as activity towards your subsidy.
Recognised activities:
- paid work including being self employed
- paid or unpaid leave, including paid or unpaid parental or maternity leave
- doing an approved course of education or study
- doing training to improve work skills or employment prospects
- unpaid work in a family business
- actively looking for work
- volunteering
- unpaid work experience or unpaid internship
- actively setting up a business
- other activities on a case-by-case basis
However, some of these activities will only be recognised for a certain amount of time. The government will only count:
- periods of unpaid leave for up to 6 months – this doesn’t apply to unpaid parental leave
- setting up a business for 6 months out of every 12 months
How does the activity test work?
Presently the hours of subsidised care a family can get each fortnight depends on their activity level. The higher the level of activity, the more hours of subsidised care families can get.
NOTE: These outcomes will be changing in January 2026 under the 3 Day Guarantee so that all families will receive a minimum of 72 hours per fortnight of subsidised care.
Services Australia looks at both parents’ activity level and use the parent with the lower activity level to determine a family’s hours of subsidised care.
Families need to do a recognised activity to get CCS. Exemptions apply for parents who cannot meet activity test requirements.
For more information about how your activity level affects CCS, please go to the Australian Government Department of Education website.
| Hours of activity each fortnight | Hours of subsidised care, per child, each fortnight |
| Less than 8 hours | 0 hours if you earn above $85,279 24 hours if you earn $85,279 or below |
| 8 hours to 16 hours | 36 hours |
| More than 16 hours to 48 hours | 72 hours |
| More than 48 hours | 100 hours |