Alternative Child Care can be provided to clients in Work Services who are seeking employment as well as clients no longer receiving income support who are in the retaining phase.
Applicants must not have reasonable access to a licensed day care facility within a 5 km radius of the home, workplace or training institution. Reasonable access means that a licensed day care has available spaces during the hours they are required and for the appropriate age of the child.
This benefit will be especially beneficial to people who work shifts or weekends. Alternative Child Care is not to be confused with regular baby-sitting or child care. The following applicants do not qualify for the Alternative Child Care benefit:
- SD child protection cases where the child is in the care of the Minister.
- Early Childhood Initiatives (ECI) cases
The Alternative Child Care rate is determined automatically by the system when a benefit is set up. The person receiving an Alternative Child Care benefit should always be set up as a co-payee with the service provider.
An Alternative Child Care provider must be at least 19 years of age and not have more than four pre-school children, or five children if at least one is of school age or two infants under two years of age, or only eight after school children in their care, otherwise they must be licensed through the Department of Social Development. Our department must not pay benefits to a service provider under these circumstances. As with baby-sitting, immediate family members cannot be considered as service providers. This includes parents or grand parents or someone residing in the household.
To qualify for Alternative Child Care, a family must meet the following criteria:
- Social Need - be a single parent where the parent is working, or in a training, be a two parent family in which both parents are working; or one parent is working and the other parent is incapacitated, undertaking medical treatment or in an educational or rehabilitation program or in Work Services and participating in a Job search.
- Financial Need - have net income less than the maximum level as per the Alternative Child Care Contribution Schedule.
Alternative Child Care benefits for work services clients (obtaining) can be approved for up to a six month period.
Aside from criteria mentioned above, all relevant procedures are identical to those for the Day Care Program.