News that the COVID-19 childcare package is about to wrap up has met a mixed response among providers in Goulburn.
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The government is ending its emergency free childcare package on July 13.
It will also pull JobKeeper out of the sector from July 20, replacing it with a $708 million transition package worth about a quarter of its pre-crisis revenue.
Melanie Wakefield, who runs Jump Start Early Learning and Scaliiwags Children's Centre in Goulburn, and Wallace Street Early Childhood Centre in Braidwood, said she's relieved the emergency arrangements are coming to an end.
"Based on what we've been told by new families that have come to us during this period, their previous centres had minimised hours and days available, even though the parents were still working," said Ms Wakefield.
"It's my belief that we needed to get this country moving again, so we took them on anyway, which meant my business was subsidising them.
"That was to ensure that families that needed to go to work could have access to childcare.
"So we are happy that it's ending because we are going backwards.
"I wish it ended tomorrow to be honest."
She said that the Australian Childcare Alliance had been advising parents to ignore what they see on social media, but rather contact their childcare provider, and make sure their financial details were updated on Centrelink.
Tina Bajwa, manager of Goulburn Academy of Early Learning, said that they had also added new families during the crisis period, some of whom may not be able to pay when the fee-free arrangements ended.
"There may be some who can't afford it," she said.
"It would be so much easier if it was free, but what can you do?"
She said that existing families had also tried to add more days, but the centre was at full capacity.
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Nationally, some childcare providers are warning parents who have lost work because of the coronavirus pandemic won't be able to afford fees once they start again in a month.
The nation's largest childcare operator, Goodstart, which has a centre in Goulburn, says half of its nearly 60,000 families have had their income slashed since February.
Money coming into those households had dropped by a third on average.
Goodstart and other operators had asked for the government to address the activity test that determines how much subsidised child care a family can access and affordability for those whose income had dropped.
It's done the first - easing the activity test until October - but not the second.
"(The minister) heard our message that we needed a relaxation of the activity test families still need to pay out-of-pocket costs - child care will no longer be free - and they'll still be means-tested on that," Goodstart chief executive John Cherry told ABC Radio National on Tuesday.
"There have been a lot of two-income families become one-income families or one-and-a-half income families and that really has knocked around where they will stand in terms of being able to afford child care."
He said losing JobKeeper was a surprise.
The Australian Childcare Alliance said it would be very difficult to predict what attendance would be like.
"We will monitor the pressure of operator costs to ensure the new policy settings regarding fees being maintained at February levels do not cause undue harm to families, educators or the providers," president Paul Mondo said.
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