Many thanks to everyone who filled in the CareforKids.com.au third annual child care survey. We thought you’d be interested in reading the results, and as usual we’re always happy to receive your comments on issues about child care.

The results of the latest CareforKids.com.au® Annual Child Care and Workforce Participation Survey show that parents are increasingly worried about the cost of child care, but also more confused than last year over eligibility for the Child Care Benefit and employers still have much to do to encourage women back to work after maternity leave.

The survey results show that parents are still very unhappy with the escalating cost of child care and despite child care vacancies, parents often still can’t find the right type or days they need.

A quick look on our child care search pages shows that a good proportion of inner city child care facilities have current vacancies, but parents are finding the fees hard to swallow and employers may be stopping parents from taking up these places due to inflexibility on working hours/days.

What concerns us (CareforKids.com.au) too is that many parents are clearly still confused by the child care benefit and rebate system and are missing out on valuable help that might make working more viable.

Child Care Benefit confusion
Confusion still reigns and 30 per cent of you were unsure if they’re eligible for child care benefit (an increase of 2 per cent from last year) and 43 per cent unsure about claiming tax rebate.

If you are still confused about child care benefit, child care rebate, how to claim and your eligibility, we have a number of articles on child care benefits and rebates available for you to read - click here to view

• 31 per cent of parents think that the current child care benefit and tax rebates have significant impact on their child care costs, whereas 51 per cent don’t. 17 per cent don’t know.
• 96 per cent believe all child care should be tax deductible and 81 per cent believe nannies and au pairs should be deemed “approved child care” and therefore qualify for child care benefit/tax rebate.
• 71 per cent believe a hike from 30 to 50 per cent rebate will make a significant difference to the cost of child care.

• 15 per cent are paying over $80 per child/per day
• 36 per cent are paying between $100 and $200 per child/per week
• 42 per cent are paying over $200 which is the same as last year but 20 per cent are paying over $300 – an increase on last year (17 per cent).
• 60 per cent of parents would like to change the cost of their child care; 28 per cent would like to change the hours (to make them more viable for a working day).
• 30 per cent said the cost of child care meant that having children in child care outweighed their net income, making it financially unviable to work. So if they’re working, it’s for the benefit of their careers and/or their sanity!

Returning to work
While money is still the main motivation for returning to work for 77 per cent of you, career progression and independence were still significant factors. There are also a growing number of parents who are now working from home.

The dreaded Motherguilt is still causing return to work angst for around 2/3 of mums. We suppose that will naturally always be the case!

Concerns making return to work hard:

• 7 per cent said finding child care
• 61 per cent said daily logistics
• 33 per cent said financial complications

Employers still behind on help for parents
Over 69 per cent of parents polled who had recently returned to work or were about to return to work said they had received no assistance from their employers with child care search, flexible hours, financial assistance or other parental support to encourage them back to work.

Only 12.5 per cent of pollsters’ employers had provided help in the child care search process or other child care and parental support, and of those who did, 21 per cent allowed flexible hours, only 6 per cent helped with child care search, 8 per cent with information and just 4 per cent with financial help.

Paid maternity aside, there are so many other simple, inexpensive and practical solutions employers could be providing that would make it a whole lot easier and viable for parents to return to work or manage parenting around working arrangements and more employers need to come up with more practical assistance in helping facilitate mums returning to work.

The Maternity Pay Debate
CareforKids survey respondents are clear in what they think the government and employers should be providing: 75 per cent think both the government and employer should jointly foot the bill to the tune of 50 per cent salary for 6 months.

• 43 per cent believe 50 per cent salary for maternity pay is fair and sustainable
• 35 per cent think paid maternity should be 6 months
• 16 per cent think 9 months
• 40 per cent think 12 months

From your responses we think parents are largely realistic and understanding of the cost implications to businesses of statutory maternity pay, particularly those working for smaller businesses that would struggle to pay full salary for six months on their own, as well as employ a replacement.

However, considering our need for women in the workforce and our need to continue growing our economy, combined with the fact we are so far behind on the issue compared to other developed countries, parents simply believe that we really need to resolve the statutory maternity pay issue as soon as possible and at least offer something!

The 2007 survey was completed by over 1623 parents. Click here to view 2007 results