Childcare fees will increase for family daycare in Hobsons Bay as the council seeks to make up a $230,000 funding shortfall under federal government changes.
Family daycare refers to childcare provided in the home for children from six weeks to 12 years and is cheaper than childcare centres.
In its May budget, the Abbott government announced it would tighten the criteria for family day care from July, saving $157million over three years.
Mayor Colleen Gates said fees had to be increased for parents as a way to recover the lost funding while maintaining services.
“Parent fees are made up of a fee for care and an administration levy,” she said.
“The administration levy will increase from 52 cents an hour to $1.29. In 84 per cent of cases, the means-tested additional fee will increase from between $6.52 and $9.52 per hour to between $7.29 and $10.29 an hour.
“As a worse-case scenario, a high-income family may expect an hourly fee of $13.79. But it’s important to note that this would currently affect six of 335 families utilising the service.”
She said the average family would pay from $42 to $75 a week for 22 hours of care.
Seaholme’s Kylie Swan is among more than 50 family day carers in the municipality and her daughter is with another provider for several hours a week.
“Consider the family that has three children … That then puts the cost of their childcare up considerably.
“If they don’t use our service, where do they go, what do they do?”
But she said parents preferred the fee increase to seeing the service fold.
