Following the Jobs for Families package being passed through the Senate in March, the government has announced that the new regime includes provisions which will change arrangements for the payment and recovery of enrolment advances.

The text below was provided by the Department of Education and Training:

What are the changes?

1) From 1 July 2017, enrolment advances will no longer be paid
Enrolment advances will not be paid from 1 July 2017 onward, regardless of the enrolment ‘Start Date’. 
An enrolment record created on or after 1 July 2017 with a request for an enrolment advance will be rejected and an error message will be generated (even if the ‘Start Date’ is backdated).
 
If an enrolment record is created before 1 July 2017 with a ‘Start Date’ of 1 July 2017 or later with a request for an enrolment advance, the enrolment will also be rejected and an error message will be generated.
 
2) Enrolment advances older than four years will be recovered
From 1 July 2017, CCMS will automatically recover any enrolment advances older than four years. The amount recovered will be deducted from future fee reduction payments.

On 1 July 2017, any enrolment record with a ‘Start Date’ of 1 July 2013 or older will automatically have the enrolment advance recovered, even if the child is still enrolled at the service. CCMS will carry out this process to identify and recover enrolment payments older than four years on the first day of every month.

Note: Currently enrolment advances are recovered when the enrolment ends or when the service ceases to operate, and this process will continue.

Tip to prepare for the upcoming changes

To reduce the amount of enrolment advances you may need to pay back, we recommend that you progressively change existing enrolment records to remove ‘enrolment advance’ from the record. This can be done periodically by ending a small number of enrolment records at the end of a particular week (Sunday), then re-creating the enrolment record with a start date of the following week (Monday) without requesting an enrolment advance on the re-created record.
 
If you have any queries about these changes, please contact the CCMS Helpdesk. Tel: 1300 667 276 or Email: ccmshelpdesk@education.gov.au