If your child turns 4 years old on or before 31 July 2025 and is enrolled in a preschool program at an eligible long day care service, you will receive up to $2,174 in fee relief. If your child is 3 years old and not yet 4 years old on, or before 31 July in 2025 and is enrolled at an eligible long day care service, you will receive up to $515 in fee relief.
This fee relief is available to families through long day care services in the 2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care program. The fee relief will be passed on to you by your long day care service as a weekly reduction to your session fee or gap fee. The reduction will be shown to you in a regular invoice or statement from the service.
The fee relief is in addition to and will not impact on your Child Care Subsidy payments provided by the Australian Government. Fee relief is not means tested and there are no residency or visa requirements. You will still need to pay any gap fees remaining after the Child Care Subsidy and fee relief have been applied.
If your child starts later in the year, your weekly fee reduction does not change. This is because services must spread the fee relief across the number of weeks they are open and apply the fee relief as a reduction to weekly fees for each child. For example: if a service is open 50 weeks a year, they will pass on a reduction of:
If your child enrols in a long day care service in June, then you will receive fee relief of up to $43.48 or up to $10.30 from the week your child’s enrolment starts at that long day care service.
