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To balance your CCS, you need to confirm your income. If you have a partner or had a partner during the financial year but have separated, they also need to confirm their income. You can do this by either:
- lodging a tax return with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
- telling us you and your partner don’t need to lodge one and confirming your income by completing an Advise non-lodgement of tax return with us.
Even if you’ve told the ATO you don’t need to lodge, you need to let us know too. When you do this, you’ll tell us your actual income.
If you had a partner but separated during the year, or have since separated, we still need their details. If you have concerns about confirming their income, you can call the Families line.
The ATO may extend the date you and your partner need to lodge your tax return by. However, this won’t change the time limits for CCS. You still need to confirm your family income with us by our time limits so we can balance your CCS.
If there’s a reason you can’t confirm your income, you should call the Families line to discuss your options.
You can advise non-lodgement of your tax return using either:
If you need help, use our online guides to either:
- advise non-lodgement of tax return using your Centrelink online account
- advise non-lodgement of tax return using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.
One year after the financial year ends
You usually have one year from the end of the financial year to confirm your income for CCS. We’ll write to you before this date to remind you.
Confirming income for the 2022-23 financial year
If you got CCS or Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) for 2022-23 and didn’t confirm your family’s income by 30 June 2024, your payments will have stopped. From 8 July 2024, your CCS will have reduced to 0%. However, we’ll continue to pay your ACCS Child Wellbeing payments.
Confirming income for the 2023-24 financial year
If you got CCS for 2023-24 you have until 30 June 2025 to confirm your family’s income. If you don’t confirm your income, your CCS will stop. It will reduce to 0% from 7 July 2025. This will also apply if you get ACCS. However, ACCS Child Wellbeing payments will continue.
Stopping CCS
If your CCS and ACCS stop, you’ll have to pay full fees for any child care you use.
If they stop, we can start them again once you’ve confirmed your income, provided you’re still eligible. We’ll restart them from the first day of the CCS fortnight that follows the date you confirmed your income.
A CCS fortnight is a 2-week period that starts every second Monday. For example, the first CCS fortnight for the 2024-25 year starts on Monday 8 July 2024.
If there’s a gap between your CCS and ACCS stopping and starting again, we won’t back pay you for that period.
Two years after the financial year ends
If you don’t confirm your income within two years of the end of the financial year, both of the following will apply:
- your CCS and ACCS, including Child Wellbeing, will cancel
- we may send you an Account Payable Notice to let you know you owe us money.
We can reassess your debt, which means you may no longer have a debt or it may be less. You need to confirm your family income so we can do this. You can confirm your family income by either:
- lodging a tax return with the ATO
- telling us you and your partner don’t need to lodge one and confirming your income by completing an Advise non-lodgement of tax return with us.
If you had a partner but separated during the year, or have since separated, we still need their details. If you have concerns about confirming their income, you can call the Families line.
When you confirm your family income, we’ll balance your payments. Since the deadlines have passed, you’ll miss out on any top ups or arrears of CCS you were eligible for at that time. However, you’ll now be able to lodge a new claim for CCS or ACCS.
Confirming income for the 2021-22 financial year
If you got CCS for 2021-22 and didn’t confirm your family’s income by 30 June 2024 the following may apply:
- you may have been sent an Account Payable letter telling you to repay all CCS paid during 2021-22
- your CCS will cancel from 8 July 2024
- when we balance your payments, you’ll miss out on any top ups or arrears of CCS you may have been eligible for, had you confirmed your income on time.
If you got ACCS, including any Child Wellbeing payments, this payment will have cancelled as well.
Confirming income for the 2022-23 financial year
If you haven’t confirmed your family’s income for 2022-23 by 30 June 2025 the following may apply:
- you’ll need to repay any CCS you got for 2022-23
- your CCS will cancel from 7 July 2025
- when we balance your payments, you’ll miss out on any top ups or arrears of CCS you may have been eligible for, had you confirmed your income on time.
If you get ACCS, including any Child Wellbeing payments, this payment will cancel as well.
Getting CCS again
If your CCS has cancelled and you want to claim CCS again, you’ll need to have done both of the following:
- confirmed your family’s income for any financial years that you got CCS and that you haven’t done this for
- paid back any money you owe or set up a payment arrangement.
Pay back money you owe
You’ll need to pay the money back if either of the following apply:
- you don’t confirm your income
- you confirm your income and, after we balance your payments, you have a debt.
You can read more about Centrelink debts and overpayments.