Under Family Assistance Law, enrolments automatically end when a child does not physically attend care for 14 weeks. This 14-week period may be up soon for families in Greater Melbourne.
To ensure enrolments remain active during the extended lockdown, Services Australia will record a one-off $0 session of care on Monday 18 October for children enrolled at services in Greater Melbourne.
This will reset the start of the 14-week period to begin from 18 October 2021.
The session will show in your system as ‘COVID-19 system update’. It has no impact on a family’s CCS payments.
What you need to do
Services Australia will apply the $0 session of care at the child’s usual service from 12:01am to 12:30am on Monday 18 October 2021.
If your service is in Greater Melbourne, please confirm the $0 session is there after this time. If it’s not, please follow the instructions below to add it.
If you vary a session report for the week starting Monday 18 October, you must re-enter the $0 session of care in that report unless you are recording actual attendances for that child in that week. See instructions below to add the $0 session.
If you vary the session report and do not replace the $0 session of care where a child did not attend, their enrolment will cease 14 weeks after their last attendance.
How to add the $0 session
- Enter a $0 session of care for 12.01 am to 12.30 am on 18 October
- State ‘COVID-19 service update’ in the session description to distinguish this from the original Services Australia entry.
You can only do this if your service is in one of the below Local Government Areas (LGAs). This activity will be monitored through compliance checks.
Who does this apply to?
Services in the following Victorian LGAs will have the $0 session applied on 18 October 2021:
Banyule, Bayside, Boroondara, Brimbank, Casey, Darebin, Frankston, Glen Eira, Greater Dandenong, Hobson Bay, Hume, Kingston, Knox, Manningham, Maribyrnong, Maroondah, Melbourne, Melton, Monash, Moonee Valley, Moreland, Port Phillip, Stonnington, Whitehorse, Whittlesea, Wyndham, Yarra, Cardinia, Mornington Peninsula, Nillumbik, and Yarra Ranges.
We will provide more information about border towns soon.