Young Parent Childcare Payment Factsheet
Information for childcare centres and services
About the payment
The Young Parent Childcare Payment helps parents aged under 18 years who are in secondary education to pay for childcare at an approved (licensed or chartered) early childcare centre or service. The payment covers school time, including the young parent's travel time if necessary.
We pay up to $6 per hour for each child aged under 5 years, up to a maximum of $180 each week. The money is paid by Work and Income directly to the centre or service, a week in arrears.
Absences
If you charge a fee for holding places open for absent children and a child is absent for more than 15 working days at a time, we may stop paying the fee. Talk to us about this as we can extend this to up to 30 days in some cases.
The Young Parent Childcare payment doesn't continue over the school holidays. However, if you charge a fee to hold places over the school holidays we'll pay this, except over the summer holiday period. If you don't charge a fee for absences, you must tell us every time a child is absent from the centre because we can't pay you. You must also tell us immediately if a child you are receiving a Young Parent Childcare Payment for leaves the centre. If you don't contact us, you may have to pay back any money you are overpaid.
The application process
The young parent will ask you to complete Part E of their application form. They will need to reapply for the payment each year that they are in secondary education.
Who qualifies?
A young parent qualifies for the Young Parent Childcare payment, if they are:
- aged under 18 years
- the person who has the primary responsibility for the day-to-day care of their children
- in secondary education - this includes mainstream schools, Teen Parent Units, The Correspondence School or Activity Centres and
- not getting the Domestic Purposes Benefit, Emergency Maintenance Allowance, or a Widow's Benefit. If they are getting the Invalid's Benefit, they need to talk to us about whether they can get the payment.
