Suspending the Clawback of CCS

Since 27 August 2021, the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) NSW is pleased that the Federal Department of Education has announced that it will reset the 14 week timeframe whereby under the Family Assistance Law, enrolments automatically end when a child does not physically attend care for 14 weeks.

According to the Federal Department's announcement, the following local government areas in Greater Sydney will have this 14 week timframe reset:

Bayside, Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Burwood, Camden, Campbelltown, Canada Bay, Canterbury-Bankstown, Central Coast, Parramatta, Shellharbour, City of Sydney, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Hawkesbury, Hornsby, Hunters Hill, Inner West, Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, Liverpool, Mosman, North Sydney, Northern Beaches, Penrith, Randwick, Ryde, Strathfield, Sutherland, The Hills Shire, Waverley, Willoughby, Wollondilly, Wollongong, and Woollahra

To achieve this resetting of the 14 week timeframe, Services Australia will insert a one-off $0 session of care for children enrolled in services in the abovementioned local government areas from 12.01 am to 12.30 am on Monday, 13 September 2021.

This means that:

• where children have not attended care since 7 June 2021, their enrolments will not cease; and
• the session will show in your CCMS as “COVID-19 system update”. It has no impact on a family’s Child Care Subsidy (CCS) payments.

You must not vary or withdraw the $0 session of care unless it conflicts with an actual attendance.

If you vary or withdraw the $0 session of care where a child did not attend, their enrolment will cease 14 weeks after their last attendance.

For children whose enrolments are being or have been terminated, ACA NSW anticipates further advice will be provided to services shortly.

Services are asked to do the following:

• Confirm the $0 session is there and rectify if not.
• If you submit sessions in the same week as the $0 session has been entered by Services Australia, please ensure your session reports include the $0 session.
• Make sure you don’t remove the session. If you accidentally do, this is how to add it back:
  
  • You will need to re-enter the $0 session of care in the session report for 13 September 2021 and enter the time as 12.01 am to 12.30 am. In the session description you need to state “COVID-19 service update”, to distinguish this from the original Services Australia entry.
  • You can only do this if Services Australia has submitted an initial session report with the 13 September 2021 $0 session of care for the enrolment. This activity will be monitored through compliance checks.

Should you still require any further assistance, please register your service and issue via the form below.

Create your own user feedback survey

Should you need any further information/clarification, please contact the ACA NSW team on 1300 556 330 or nsw@childcarealliance.org.au.

PUBLISHED: 7 SEPTEMBER 2021