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How much will child care cost?
The first things most visitors to CareforKids.com.au want to know is where they can get child care and how much it will cost. As much as we would like to be able to provide a definitive answer to the cost question it is impossible.
Child care costs vary from provider to provider and from state to state and they are not regulated by the Government. Most child care providers charge a minimum daily rate or an hourly rate. Some places include everything in the price, such as food and nappies, while others, such as family day care, require parents to provide everything.
The table below provides a very rough guide of current costs for child care, it should be used as an indication only, for an accurate idea about the costs of care in your area you will need to contact the providers directly.
While a breakdown of the costs of every type of care in each state and territory is beyond the scope of this article, we have sourced some information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) which will hopefully give you a little more information about what prices to expect as you look for care.
Every three years the ABS conducts a nationwide Child Care Survey which presents information about the use of, and demand for, child care for children aged 0-12 years. The last survey was completed in 2008 and the findings provide some useful information on average child care costs across Australia.
It is worth pointing out that the costs reported here are the costs to parents after the Child Care Benefit and the Child Care Rebate have been taken into account.
The ABS survey showed that in June 2008, more than 1.5 million children aged up to 12 years usually attended some kid of care. As with previous survey years long day care was the most commonly used type of formal care (12 per cent) and this was followed by before and/or after school care programs (7 per cent).
For 75 per cent (1,134,000) of the children who were in care during the week of the survey the cost of the week's care (after CCB and CCR) was less than $40, however this includes a large number (two thirds) of children who were in informal care for no cost. For 9 per cent of children usually in care the weekly cost was $100 or more.
The survey reports that the mean and median weekly costs per child were $53 and $35 respectively. The cost was highest for long day care, with a median weekly cost of $53.
The median weekly cost for formal care per child for less than 5 hours care was $12, while for 40 hours or more the median weekly cost was $143.
Median cost of formal child care for child(a)
The good news is that since the introduction of the CCB & CCR out-of-pocket costs to parents have fallen from 2004 to 2009 across the income spectrum.
In 2004, the out-of-pocket costs, after subsidies, for a family with one child in long day care earning $55,000 a year was 13 per cent of their disposable income. In 2009, this proportion had declined to 7 per cent.
For families with a gross annual income of $115,000 the proportion of their disposable income spent on child care declined from 11 per cent in 2004 to 7 per cent in 2009.
The best way to determine the cost of child care in your area is to contact a few of the child care services and chat to them directly. Think about whether you would prefer to have everything provided for your child or whether you would prefer to send your child off each day with nappies and food. This decision alone will help you determine the best type of child care for your family and will directly affect the cost.
When comparing costs it is also important to think about peripheral expenses such as the price of travelling to and from the child care service in terms of petrol, public transport and/or convenience. These factors can have a considerable effect on the total price you end up paying for your child care. |
