44 per cent of parents say free childcare is ‘significant’ help to stay in work, one third say they will reduce childcare days if fees brought back

A third of parents say they will have to reduce the number of days their kids attend child care or remove them completely if the Federal Government turns off the free childcare tap early. The West Australian can reveal close to half of all parents with young children (44 per cent) said their income has been reduced during the COVID-19 crisis and the ability to access care without a hit to the family budget has been a significant help in keeping them in work. As the nation braces for unemployment to balloon to 10 per cent by next month, the results of a survey of 1343 parents has found the majority have kept the same number of childcare days as prior to COVID-19 (58 per cent). But one in 10 (11 per cent) said they had to get more hours but were denied. A third of parents (34 per cent) reported they will need to reduce days or remove their children altogether if out-of-pocket fees rebound to pre-COVID levels and of those 66 per cent of women said they will be impacted by having to reduce their hours worked. And 33 per cent of parents said out-of-pocket childcare costs were “too expensive” prior to COVID-19 while 79 per cent of parents said they had discussed one parent giving up work due to childcare fees being so high. It comes as the Federal Government weighs up a decision about whether to end free child care after just three months of support, rather than six. However, it has indicated the tap will be turned off. “It’s done its job ... Now we’ve got to help the sector dealing with increasing demand and, as we know, the old system was working effectively,” Education Minister Dan Tehan said last week. Advocacy group The Parenthood’s national campaign director Georgie Dent said without careful consideration, both parents and centres would suffer. “If parents have to reduce their care it will be much more difficult for the economy to return to working as normal,” Ms Dent said. “We also know that if attendance declines the reality is a significant number of centres will have to close. This is the time the Government has to look at overhauling the early learning subsidy system.” Early Childhood Australia’s Sam Page said “affordability is likely to be significant for a lot of families” if the original childcare subsidy system returns. She said if there wasn’t structural change to the system “it will make a lot of centres unviable and that will be hard to recover down the track”. “If parents are forced to reduce hours or pull their kids out a lot of children won’t get that critical experience before they transition to school and secondly women’s workforce participation and the recovery in that sense will suffer,” Ms Page said. The Australian Childcare Alliance’s Nesha Hutchinson said “there is an argument that families should make some co-contribution so they understand the value of care”. But she said the old system needed an overhaul. “All signs are heading to a recession and supporting services to support families to keep the economy open and churning over is going to be very important,” she said. Rebecca Browder, 32, is a lawyer from Shenton Park and mum to Lillian, 1, and Henry, 3. Her kids attend child care four days a week and she said if the costs returned to normal she would have to at the very least curtail her work hours. “We won’t be able to afford it. I will have to either stop working or reduce my days just so we can live,” she said.