The Young Parent Childcare Payment
If you're a parent aged under 18 and you're in secondary school, we can help pay childcare costs for your children under 5
To get the young parent childcare payment
You need to be:
- aged under 18 and
- the person who has the primary responsibility for the day-to-day care of your children and
- in secondary school – this includes a Teen Parent Unit or Correspondence School and
- not getting a Domestic Purposes Benefit, Emergency Maintenance Allowance or a Widow’s Benefit. If you or your partner are getting the Invalid’s Benefit, please talk to us about whether you can get the payment.
If you don’t qualify for the payment, for example you’re over 18 or you’re about to finish school and go into training or paid work, call us on 0800 559 009 to see how else we can help.
What does it pay for?
The payment covers the cost of childcare for the time you spend at school - this may include your travel time.
We pay up to $6 an hour for each child under 5 – which covers the cost of most childcare centres or services – up to a maximum of $180 each week. If this doesn’t cover all the costs, you’ll need to pay the rest to the centre or service yourself.
To get the payment your children need to go to an approved childcare centre or service – we can help you find one. We’ll give the payment directly to the centre so you don’t have to worry about it.
The payment won’t continue over the school holidays – if the childcare centre or service charges a fee to keep your children’s places over the holidays, we’ll pay it.
Your parent or guardian must sign the form (unless you are married, in a civil union or in a de facto relationship with someone of the same or opposite sex). The form also needs to be signed by your school, and the childcare centre or service.
