Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package - Exceptional Circumstances Supplementary Payment

The exceptional circumstance Supplementary Relief Payment is available for services who need a ‘top-up’ on the Early Childhood Education and Care Package payment already receiving through the Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package.

How does a provider/service apply to get a higher payment?

A provider/service will need to complete an online form.
Providers/services will need to provide supporting reasons and evidence with their application. This means the provider/service will need to tell the department why they think they need a higher amount each week. This could be:

• the reference period did not accurately reflect your usual situation – for example, you did not provide care for some of the reference fortnight OR
• you need more support for the children currently in your care and or
• you are caring for more children, more often or for a longer time.

What should a provider/service do before they apply?

To work out if you need more support from the Government, you should first work out whether you think you are eligible for JobKeeper Payment and register your interest. Some simple tests for provider/services:

• Is the provider/service a sole trader, or do they employ staff?
• Do they have an ABN?
• Are parent fees and Child Care Subsidy the sole source of normal revenue?
• Do you have revenue from other sources? OR
• Has the overall revenue across all the parts of the enterprise fallen by at least 30 per cent?

If the answer to these questions is yes, the provider/service is likely to be eligible to apply for the JobKeeper Payment.

If you are eligible for JobKeeper Payment you will need to consider how many employees you have who are not short term casuals and multiply that by $1500 per fortnight per employee.

You will also need to take into account:

• what you received from the Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package payment in the first week
• how many children you charged fees for during the reference fortnight
• how many children are actually attending and for what hours care is being provided now?

If a provider/service is not eligible for JobKeeper Payment, it may be eligible for a supplementary payment.

Getting all of this information together will help you to work out whether extra support is needed on top of the base relief payment to continue to provide care.

What will you need in order to fill out the form?

The form will ask the provider/service to provide information about how many children are being cared for and will also ask for details like:

• What is your service and Customer Reference Number (CRN)?
• Are you a person with management and control?
• What is your PRODA ID?
• Was your service closed due to COVID-19?

What will the department take into consideration?

The department will take into account:

• whether the provider/service is eligible for JobKeeper Payment – if you are eligible, this wage subsidy must be passed on to eligible
• workers (and will be backdated to 30 March 2020)
• how many children you are providing care for and how often
• the number of children actually attending your provider/service hours of care being provided.

If the provider/service is caring for the same number or more children than during the reference period, this would be relevant to the department in considering whether supplementary payment should be made.

When will the provider/service know if their application is successful?

If approved, supplementary payment is added to the base relief payment. This is paid in the following week after approval.

Separately, a supplementary top up payment, covering any period between when the application was received and the decision made, will be paid.

How long will a service have to wait to get the payment?

We will endeavour to assess applications as quickly as possible. However, this process requires a case by case examination of your circumstances.

To give providers/services time to register interest for JobKeeper Payment and apply for help through supplementary payment if required, we will be providing a double payment to all provider/services, including Family Day Care, in Week 2. This means while a service is waiting to see if it is able to get an extra payment, it will get a double payment on Thursday 16 April 2020: the normal weekly payment, and an advance on another payment, which will be taken from the last payment run of the financial year.

For more information: Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package - Exceptional Circumstance Supplementary Relief Payment

Reference: 
Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package - Exceptional Circumstance Supplementary Relief Payment, Department Of Education, Skills and Employment, 9 April 2020