Child care educators have raised frustration over software issues that has led to delays in pay, or incorrect remuneration, after making the switch to the new child care subsidy system.
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Family Day Care educators and in-home carers appear to be hit hardest by the software issues, expressing anger and frustration to Family Day Care Australia.
FDCA chief executive Andrew Paterson said the organisation was working with educators and the department to resolve the issue quickly.
“Family Day Care Australia (FDCA) is aware that some family day care services and educators have experienced system issues arising from third party software providers following the transition to the child care subsidy system,” Mr Paterson said.
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Bass Labor MHR Ross Hart said a number of educators and families had spoken to him about frustration with the changes this week.
“The fact that people aren’t being paid or receiving bills for their child care is concerning,” he said.
Mr Hart said it wasn’t the first time his constituents had raised issues with government software.
Delays in processing Centrelink claims for the elderly has also been a significant issue.
“It seems to be a pattern of new systems under this government, they don’t seem to be very good at it [rolling out new software],” he said.
Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the government understood child care played an important role in any household budget.
“The frustration of a small number of providers and families is understandable,” he said.
“Due to the sheer scale of these changes, it’s inevitable that some teething issues will arise. I can assure Australians however, there’s a reward at the end of the tunnel, with a typical Australian family set to be better off by $1300 per child per year.”
Tasmanian early childhood union United Voice said significant concerns had been raised by its members about the roll out of the new changes.
However, they had not received any specific concerns about educators not being paid.
“Jobs for Families has had significant implementation issues. Families and services have been really struggling to understand the new system, get registered through Centrelink and receive the right payments,” United Voice Tasmania branch secretary Jannette Armstrong said.
“This has caused significant stress and almost certainly means that some children are missing out. The government should be ashamed of the negative impact this new system is having on families and educators.”
The changes to the child care subsidy came into effect on July 1.