In Home Care Estimator
This estimator helps you work out the amount of child care fee assistance you may receive when accessing In Home Care (IHC).
The amount of Child Care Subsidy you receive depends on your circumstances, including:
- your family's estimated combined annual adjustable taxable income,
- your Child Care Subsidy activity test result and assessed required IHC hours, and
- if you are eligible to receive Additional Child Care Subsidy.
Eligibility for In Home Care and the number of IHC hours a family may receive are assessed by the IHC Support Agencies, and is separate to the number of hours of subsidised education and care (childcare), based on the Child Care Subsidy activity test, a family is entitled to. The activity test determines the maximum number of hours of childcare a family is eligible to be subsidised for, not the number of IHC hours that will be received.
It is recommended you contact the In Home Care Support Agencies , in your relevant state/territory to discuss In Home Care eligibility and your family's education and care needs.
Information about the Child Care Subsidy and Additional Child Care Subsidy is available on the Services Australia website at https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/childcaresubsidy
Information on the In Home Care program and eligibility is available on the Department of Education website at https://www.education.gov.au/in-home-care
The IHC subsidy rate is a family hourly rate for up to 5 children (and up to 4 preschool aged and under). Thresholds and caps, including the In Home Care hourly rate will be increased by the Consumer Price Index annually.
As the IHC subsidy rate is a family rate, a "nominated child" is to be selected when entering your required hours of IHC care. For the purposes of estimating the cost of In Home Care for your family the "nominated child" will be the child that requires the highest number of hours of In Home Care. This may change day to day. For further information on the "nominated child", please refer to the In Home Care Handbook
For example:
- Child 1 uses 10 hours of care on day 1 and 5 hours on day 2.
- Child 2 uses 8 hours of care day 1 and 7 hours on day 2.
Therefore when entering required hours of IHC in the estimator, you should enter 10 hours for day 1 and 7 hours for day 2.
Disclaimer
*The In Home Care estimator is designed to give you to an idea of how much Child Care Subsidy you may be entitled to under the In Home Care program and your potential out of pocket costs. Child Care Subsidy is generally paid directly to your child care provider to reduce the fees you pay. The estimate is based on the information you provide. If any information is incorrect, the estimate will also be incorrect.
These calculations are a guide only and are not a guarantee of future payments. Whether or not you are entitled to Child Care Subsidy is determined wholly by provisions in the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999 and the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999, as amended by the Family Assistance Legislation Amendment (Jobs for Families Child Care Package) Act 2017.
Any user of the In Home Care Estimator accepts the risk that it may not be accurate and accepts responsibility for any loss or damage incurred by reliance on it.