MOORABOOL parents are concerned childcare rebates may not survive next month’s federal budget, forcing them to leave their jobs and care for their children full time.
Tara Rieniets, a single mother and case manager at Child and Family Services (CAFS) Moorabool, says she relies on the 50per cent non-means-tested rebate for childcare expenses to get through daily life.
“If that were the case it probably wouldn’t be financially viable for me to work.
Ms Rieniets’ four-year-old daughter Markella attends kindergarten and childcare in Ballarat while her mother works full time.
“In my experience, working with a lot of parents, most people receive the rebate.
“With an increase of single-parent incomes it’s not viable to live with just Centrelink payments.
“Most parents want a better opportunity for their kids, to send them to good schools, and also to better themselves, and you’re not going to get that if you rely on Centrelink payments and don’t work.
I see a lot of people getting behind in daycare bills.”
Ms Rieniets says she worries that without the rebate, poverty cycles could be exacerbated.
Despite hints from Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Treasurer Wayne Swan that the government wouldn’t cut the 50per cent rebate for childcare expenses, the Labor MP for Ballarat, Catherine King, said she would not pre-empt any decision.
“There is no doubt this will be a tough budget … but I am not going to speculate on what it will contain. Childcare is incredibly important for families as it enables them to engage in the workforce and education,” she said.
Ms King said the government remained committed to delivering a budget surplus as it was important for the nation’s economic future.
Co-ordinator at Bacchus Marsh’s Pentland Childcare and Kindergarten Centre, Glenda Fenton said that if the rebate was means-tested many working parents would be adversely affected. “Half of our clients are not eligible for childcare benefits [which are means-tested] – or it’s just minuscule amounts.
So parents who rely solely on the rebate and not the benefit would be the most severely affected.”
Liberal Senator Michael Ronaldson called on the government to immediately rule out a means test or further cuts to the rebate.
– with the Ballarat Courier
