Understanding your statement

We know that understanding statements can be a confusing task, given the unique way that childcare is funded through the Childcare Subsidy (CCS) system, each Financial Year. If you’re not completely across it, it can be that much harder to understand a statement when it arrives in your inbox. Let's walk through how this will appear the help you understand the statement you have received.

It's important to understand that your child’s care is based on a fortnight of care used, however will show up to 4 weeks of care in total. You will no doubt be familiar with the two elements of the Childcare Subsidy:

• Subsidy Percentage – For example, 85% (The percentage of care that will be paid for by Centrelink)

• Approved Hours Per Fortnight – For example, 100 hours per fortnight. (The number of hours care to which that subsidy percentage applies)

It’s also important to understand that TeamKids is a OSHC provider and we charge per session, not per hour.  

Example One: If your child attends 5 before school and after school sessions per week, that totals 50 Hours care, which is within the allocated 100 hours above, meaning that all three days each week are subsidised at 85%. How?

Before and After school Care

Week One – 5 before school Sessions @2 Hours each = 10 Hours (5 x 2 hrs)

                      5 after school Sessions @3 Hours each = 15 Hours (5 x 3 hrs) 

Week Two –  5 before school Sessions @2 Hours each = 10 Hours (5 x 2 hrs)

                      5 after school Sessions @3 Hours each = 15 Hours (5 x 3 hrs)

Fortnightly Hours of care used = 25+25=50 Hours of Care.

Example Two: If your child attends 4 Vacation care sessions per week (based on a 12 hour session that totals 96 Hours care, which is within the allocated 100 hours above, meaning that all sessions are subsidised at 85%. How?

Vacation Care

Week One –  4 Vacation Care Sessions @12 Hours each = 48 Hours (4 x 12 hrs)

Week Two –  4 Vacation Care Sessions @12 Hours each = 48 Hours (4 x 12 hrs)                     

Fortnightly Hours of care used = 48+48=96 Hours of Care.

Example Three: If your child attends 5 Vacation care sessions per week (based on a 12 hour session that totals 120 Hours care, which is falls outside of the 100 hours above, meaning not all sessions will be subsidised at 85%. Why?

Vacation Care

Week One –  5 Vacation Care Sessions @12 Hours each = 60 Hours (5 x 12 hrs)

Week Two –  5 Vacation Care Sessions @12 Hours each = 60 Hours (5 x 12 hrs)                     

Fortnightly Hours of care used = 60+60=120 Hours of Care.

NOTE: This will mean that the 9th session for the week will only have subsidy applied to 4 hours of the session (meaning 8 hours is at full fee).  And 10th session will have no subsidy so will be at full fee.

It’s also important to note that fees payable are based on  your entitlements that are linked to your account and statements are generated automatically by our software provider, and our software integrates with the CCS platform at Services Australia/Centrelink.

This integration means that our software knows what your GAP Fee Payment each week should be, based on:

• Your child’s attendances for both weeks in a fortnight
• Your child’s subsidy percentage
• Your child’s approved hours per fortnight.

…and we will send a statement that reflects your automatically calculated gap fee payment, accordingly.

This means that when we issue statements, we will do so on a Monday, with the amount ‘Due Now’ showing your outstanding fee balance for the past 2 weeks of care. Once that payment is processed on a Wednesday, your account balance will reduce to the amount of any care used between Monday and Wednesday of that week.

Reasons why your statement might appear with different amounts from week to week:

• Your CCS Entitlements have changed and more or less of your fees are being subsidised, which will impact your payable GAP fee.

It’s important to note that we are not made aware of individual family’s changes in CCS entitlements – the first we may learn of this is if you contact us because you have been charged an amount different to what you were expecting. It is important for this reason to stay across any communications that comes to you from Centrelink so that you’re aware of the potential financial impact of the change of your entitlements based on your family’s individual circumstances.

• Your CCS Entitlements have dropped off altogether (either due to a change in circumstances or potentially an outdated Immunisation History Statement/outstanding Tax Return) so the full fee has been applied to your account rather than just the gap fee – this can make a substantial difference to your statement’s ‘Due Now’ balance and what you are subsequently charged.
• You have changed the number of days/ sessions your child attends the service (increased or decreased)
• You have a debt offset in place with Centrelink, which means that you will – for a period of time, dependent on your debt with Centrelink – you will need to pay higher gap fees, until your debt with Centrelink is resolved.

Also for your information, here is a detailed explanation of the different elements of your statement.

Things to look out for:

1. No child care subsidy shown in point 5? Click on the below link to find out why this might be the case.

Why is there no child care subsidy (CCS) on my Statement?

2. Have you provided a medical certificate for a session? If this is the case, this will appear as the same dollar value in both the credit and debit columns, which cancels out the charge.  This means there is no cost to you for this day.

3. Debit column - this is the cost of the session after your child care subsidy entitlements have been applied.