CCS Checkup is an Australian tool designed to help families stay on top of their Child Care Subsidy (CCS) throughout the year — not just at tax time.
As a parent who used the Child Care Subsidy system for many years while my two children were in care, I have seen how important CCS is for families — and how complicated it can feel to keep up with.
Through conversations with other parents in everyday family, childcare and community settings, I often heard similar concerns: confusion around tax-time balancing, uncertainty about income estimates, and questions about what to do when care days, work hours, childcare fees or family circumstances changed.
I have also spoken with childcare centre managers who are often asked CCS questions by families while trying to run busy centres. Many do their best to help, but in many cases the correct next step is to direct families back to Centrelink or Services Australia because official outcomes can only be determined there.
With my background in finance and numbers, I wanted to build something that helped families check whether the CCS details they entered still appeared to match real life when circumstances changed.
That is why I created CCS Checkup.
CCS Checkup was built to help families estimate, check and better understand when their Child Care Subsidy details may need reviewing — especially when life changes.
The Child Care Subsidy can change whenever your income, work or activity hours, partner situation, childcare fees, care hours, provider type, school status, or family circumstances change. When Centrelink details fall out of date, families can end up receiving too much CCS and face an unexpected debt at balancing time — or too little, missing subsidy they're entitled to.
CCS Checkup gives families a practical way to run a checkup when something changes. The Quick CCS Calculator provides free one-off estimates of likely out-of-pocket childcare costs. The Track My CCS subscription tool lets you compare your current Centrelink CCS baseline against projected changes, identify possible debt risk or missed subsidy risk, and get clearer next steps about what may need reviewing with Centrelink or your provider.
CCS Checkup is built for Australian families, single parents, and couples navigating the complexity of the CCS system. It is designed to be simple, practical, and useful — helping you know when a Centrelink review may be worth doing, before surprises build up.
CCS Checkup is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Services Australia or the Australian Government.
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