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Daycare/childcare options.


seanOZ

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Hi guys we will be coming to Melbourne in the middle of next month +- 16 April on a 457 visa. We are currently looking for a job for my wife. As I already have one.

My question to you is we have two small children a four-year-old girl and a 14-month-old baby boy. What are the different child caring options for us to consider if my wife would get a job, be it part-time or full-time. And how does it work? What is family day care?

Now I understand that the cost for childcare is extremely high. And that there is a high probability that the majority of my wife's salary will go to just paying for the service. But we are still interested in exploring this as a option and would like to get a bit more information of what is happening on the ground at the moment i.e. prices & what to look for etc.

​Your help is greatly appreciated.

Sean

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While it is not impossible, one of the main considerations on a 457 visa is that you will not receive any financial support or rebate for childcare.

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Hi Samoss

I have two kids in a long daycare centre (4 and 2) x3 per week. Before the child care rebate (CCR) we pay approx $100 per child per day. We get 50% of that back up to $7000 per child per year as CCR. We do not qualify for the child care benefit (CCB). If you are on a 457 you will not be eligible for CCB or CCR unfortunately.

Family day care takes place in a carer's home. The carer will have to be licensed and can only look after a certain number of children at any one time.

I wasn't very keen on family day care for a few reasons, a big one being that if the family day carer is ill you need to take the day off to look after your child and this could happen with very short notice. I know someone whose daugter was In family day care and her carer seemed to be ill at least once a month. They may just have been unlucky with their carer, I don't know. Maybe other people here will have good feedback about family day care. We don't have family who could help us out if either of us had work commitments that couldn't be postponed so we need care that is reliable.

We also have a 7 yr old in before and after school care. Again, it is the same deal with CCR and CCB.

Between the three of them a big chunk of my salary goes towards covering the cost of daycare and Afterschool/ holiday care. Some days I wonder why I bother. But on the flip side at least I'm building my superannuation up a little bit!

The waiting lists for good daycare is ridiculous in Canberra. I had my son's name down on my preferred centre for close to 2 years before he got a spot. I'm not sure what it is like in your area of Melbourne. Would be good to talk to some locals to get an idea.

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That is crazy expensive for childcare. So without PR you are looking at $100 per child per day. So if you have two kids that's $1000 per week of after tax money, or over $50,000 per year.

Much more than the most expensive private high schools in the country, and more than doing a full time degree (let's say Engineering) at a G8 university.

So glad our kids were 9 & 11 because we only got PR after 4 years.

That would have cost us R2 million...?

Anyone that thinks Australia isn't just in it for the money is very naive :(

@Sean I hope your wife can earn a really good income to make it worthwhile. Also budget $25ph for a cleaner unless you both want to spend your Saturdays doing it.

An option you might consider us an au pair. As I understand it they generally live in and they get paid about $200-$300 per week. There are several agencies.

Edited by Bronwyn&Co
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You are right Bronwyn, it is crazy. Our rebate covers about half of our daycare costs of 3 days per week over the full year. If I worked full time I would run out of CCR well before the year is over. I think many people only work part time because of this. But I try to remind myself of the bigger picture which is that this situation is not forever. Next year I will have two in school and only one in daycare. Even though we have paid an arm and a leg for daycare over the last 6+ years I have been able to stay in the workforce, building up my superannuation. If I left the workforce for seven years I would get really behind professionally and at least now I have been able to keep a foot in the door.

Lots of people winge about the cost of/ difficulty in accessing daycare. I hope the government does something about it. I think it is ridiculous that Tony Abbott is prepared to fund huge maternity leave payments in the current economic climate. That money should be put into making childcare more affordable and accessible.

There have been several relevant reports in the newspapers on this issue:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-22/ppl-not-part-of-national-childcare-review-government-says/5613744

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-22/childcare-rebate-should-cover-nannies-canberra-family-says/5615960?WT.ac=localnews_canberra

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-22/hewson-how-to-help-parents-return-to-work-sooner/5611192

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We pay $37.50 per day here in Brisbane for 2 days of childcare for a 3yo. Not too bad but I think Abbott is proposing to cut the rebate in our situation (2 days work) so it will cost us $75 per day instead :(

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Hi all,


thank you for your responses.


So it seems that the way forward for us would be for my wife to look at finding some form of work from home jobs or freelance work that she could do from time to time. I think once we get over there (ie next month) we will start looking into the au pair thing, as a potential option.



Because based on the numbers and discussions that have come through on this thread it will cost us more money from my wife to work full-time than what we would potentially make. Especially in the beginning as may she struggles to find her feet in the Australian job market.



Once again thank you for your responses.



Kind regards



sean.


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Yes, she might be better off in the baby/before school years to work part time or flexi time. Pre-school (from 3yrs-5yrs) is a bit cheaper, but hours limited. My son goes to one in Sydney 8:30-3:30 and its $55 per day (you pack morning tea and lunch). My 2 year old goes to family day care (day mother in RSA). It is $12 per hour, plus $7 per day to the council who controls it. So, for 9am to 4pm, we pay $91 per day, send nappies and a fruit. Please do not rely on getting any government assistance. We arrived with PR in hand, but for my 4 years old in his pre school we get zero $ back. My son goes to a KU centre (150 centres nation wide, established in 1895, etc.), but although the government sees this preschool institution as registered care, somehow it does not see it as approved care!? Thus, unless your preschool is inside a long-day day care, you will not get anything back. It is however cheaper than the latter. For my $91 a day son, we get something like $1.70 per day back. I wanted to tell them to shove it, but opted to get this at the end of the year and set my rebates to 0%. So, I will get a small bit of money at the end of the year. Because I cant work with calculations of $1.70 per day, to be honest. I would suggest you dont leave the work force entirely, keep you toe in and work on getting your super (pension) built up. With my $91 a day son becoming a $55 per day preschooler next year, and my $55 a day son becoming a $200 a YEAR kinder-gardener at a brilliant state primary school, we will be saving heaps of money next year. Looking forward to that.

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