These two hacks could save you over $1000 a month in childcare

In a time like this, when the cost of living is sky high, what we need is some good news, isn’t it?

Well when reading the newspaper this weekend, we found a childcare hack that many people probably don’t know about - and it could save you over $1,000 a month.

The article by Julie Cross was featured in the Sunday Telegraph, and highlighted a hack to maximise your childcare subsidy. The hack came from Benjamin Balk, the founder of the childcare comparison app, Kindicare.

He says it’s all about understanding the subsidy algorithm.

How do you even begin to understand the childcare subsidy algorithm?

“The best hack to beat the system, and maximise your subsidy is to get your hours of care under 100 hours a fortnight,” Balk said.

“Most people don’t realise that there is a maximum number of 100 hours subsidised care per fortnight under the childcare subsidy rules if one of both parents are working more than 48 hours a fortnight.

So if you’ve ever booked your children into a casual day at daycare and wondered why it blew out your daycare bill so much, this is why.

How do you get your subsidised hours of care under 100 hours a fortnight?

The article shares Mr Balk’s tip regarding getting your hours down; “If families don’t need care for 12 hours a day, they should find a provider who has flexible sessions such as 10 hours so if their children are enrolled full time they are only consuming 50 hours a week (100 hours a fortnight) of care, keeping them under the 100 hour per fortnight limit.” Balk explained.

He also went on to explain another hack, which involves cramming all your working hours into four days, so even if your child is enrolled in 12 hour full day long day care, they’re only using 48 hours of care per week - or 96 hours a fortnight.

Both of these tactics means that every hour of your childcare is subsidised.

So, what’s the second hack to save money on childcare?

Before sending your child to preschool, make sure you find out how the Start Strong Program (the subsidy program for 4-year-olds) works. Sometimes there can be provisions in place that mean only two days per week are subsidised with the Start Strong program and the third day is billed full price. Also, come preschools incur fees separate to the subsidy, to assist with the running of the preschool. For this reason It’s always worth knowing the right questions to ask, so that you can have all of the information up front.

Sending your child to preschool two days instead of three could literally save you up to $1000 a term. Ask the questions before enrolling!