Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy ("Policy") governs your use of the Child Care Subsidy Calculator website and its tools (collectively, "the Service"). By accessing or using the Service, you agree to be bound by this Policy.

The Service is provided free of charge as a public resource to help Australian families estimate their likely child care costs. It is intended to complement — not replace — official information from Services Australia and your registered child care provider.

You are welcome to use this Service for the following purposes:

• Personal estimation: Estimating your own family's likely child care costs, subsidy percentage, and out-of-pocket gap fee for personal financial planning.
• Scenario comparison: Comparing how different care arrangements, family income levels, or centre fees might affect your costs.
• Education and research: Understanding how the Child Care Subsidy system works, including the income taper, hourly caps, hour tiers, and ACCS types, for personal, educational, or journalistic purposes.
• Sharing results: Printing or saving your estimate results for personal reference or to discuss with a financial adviser, child care provider, or Services Australia.
• Linking: Linking to this website from your own website, blog, social media, or online community, provided the link is not misleading about the nature of the Service.

This is one of the most important things to understand about this Service.

Specifically, results from this calculator:

• Are not Centrelink determinations. Your actual CCS entitlement is calculated by Services Australia based on verified income, confirmed attendance records, immunisation status, and your individual circumstances. The calculator uses simplified policy modelling and cannot replicate every rule, exception, or individual factor.
• Are not financial advice. Nothing on this website should be construed as advice about whether to enrol in child care, change your work hours, choose one centre over another, or make any financial decision. If you need financial advice, consult a licensed financial adviser.
• Are not tax advice. CCS interactions with tax returns, fringe benefits, investment income, and Adjusted Taxable Income can be complex. Consult a registered tax agent or the ATO for tax-related matters.
• Are not legal advice. Questions about eligibility, disputes with Services Australia, or appeals against CCS decisions require legal or administrative law advice from a qualified practitioner.
• May be inaccurate. This tool is maintained on a best-efforts basis. It may contain errors, outdated figures, or simplifications that produce results materially different from your actual entitlement. See Section 5 (Accuracy and limitations) for details.

For authoritative information about your CCS entitlement, contact Services Australia or access your Centrelink online account via myGov.

You must not use this Service in the following ways:

• Misrepresentation of outputs: Representing the results of this calculator as an official CCS determination, a guaranteed entitlement, or a Services Australia assessment. Results are estimates and must be communicated as such.
• Commercial use without permission: Embedding, framing, reproducing, or redistributing this Service — including its calculation logic, design, or content — within a commercial product or service without prior written permission from the website operator.
• Automated scraping or data harvesting: Using automated tools, bots, scrapers, or scripts to systematically access, copy, or extract content or outputs from this Service.
• Interference with the Service: Attempting to disrupt, overload, compromise, or gain unauthorised access to the website's hosting infrastructure, including denial-of-service attacks, security probing, or injection attacks.
• Deceptive or harmful use: Using this Service in connection with any activity that is deceptive, fraudulent, illegal, or harmful to others, including misrepresenting CCS entitlements to third parties such as employers, landlords, lenders, or government agencies.
• Passing off: Presenting this calculator as your own work, removing attributions, or creating a substantially similar tool derived from this one without permission.

This calculator is provided on a best-efforts basis and we make no warranty, express or implied, about the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for purpose of its results. Known limitations include:

• Simplified policy modelling: The calculator applies a simplified version of the CCS rules. It does not capture every edge case, exception, transitional provision, or individual circumstance that Services Australia considers.
• School-age threshold: The point at which a child is considered school-age (affecting the applicable hourly cap) varies by state, territory, and the child's individual school start date. The calculator uses an approximate threshold of age 5.
• Immunisation: The calculator does not model the No Jab No Pay rule. Families with unimmunised children (without a medical exemption) may receive 0% CCS, regardless of income or hours.
• In Home Care: IHC is charged per family, not per child, and has a more complex fee structure. The calculator's IHC results are approximations.
• Year-end balancing: Actual CCS received may differ from fortnightly estimates due to income reconciliation at year end. The calculator does not model this reconciliation process.
• Rate staleness: Hourly caps and income thresholds are indexed by CPI and updated each July. Figures shown are for 2025–26 (from 7 July 2025). After July 2026, this tool will show stale rates unless updated.
• Shared custody and complex family arrangements: The calculator assumes a standard household. Complex arrangements — including shared custody, blended families, or foster care — may produce inaccurate results.
• ACCS eligibility: ACCS types require Services Australia approval based on criteria not fully modelled here. Selecting an ACCS type in the calculator does not confirm eligibility.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable Australian law, the website operator excludes all liability for any loss or damage arising from reliance on the outputs of this calculator, including consequential, incidental, or indirect losses.

The content, design, code, and text of this website — including the calculation logic, help text, FAQ content, and visual presentation — are the intellectual property of the website operator unless otherwise stated.

Australian Government policy information referenced on this site (including rate tables, threshold values, and policy descriptions) is sourced from publicly available government publications and is not claimed as our own intellectual property.

Chart.js is used under the MIT licence. Its licence and copyright notice are available at chartjs.org.

You may not reproduce, adapt, distribute, or commercially exploit the original content of this website without prior written permission from the website operator, except for personal, non-commercial reference use.

This website links to third-party websites including Services Australia, the Department of Education, myGov, the Australian Immunisation Register, and the jsDelivr CDN. We are not responsible for the content, accuracy, or practices of these third-party sites. Links are provided for reference only.

The inclusion of a link to a third-party website does not constitute endorsement of that site or its content.

We reserve the right to take any action we consider appropriate in response to a violation of this Policy, including — but not limited to — blocking access to the Service, reporting violations to law enforcement or relevant authorities, or taking legal action where permitted by applicable law.

We are the sole arbiter of what constitutes a violation of this Policy and of the appropriate response. We have no obligation to notify you before taking action.

We may update this Acceptable Use Policy at any time. Changes take effect immediately upon posting of the updated policy on this page. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect the date of the most recent revision.

Your continued use of the Service after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Policy. If you do not agree with any changes, please discontinue use of the Service.

To report a violation of this Policy, to request permission for a use not covered in Section 2, or to raise any other concern about the Service, please contact us at:

Email: hello@childcaregap.com.au
Website: childcaregap.com.au

We will respond to legitimate enquiries as promptly as reasonably practicable.