After-school care subsidy misses target

One of the key planks in the Working for Families package, subsidised after-school care, has so far failed to reach the vast majority of families with school-age children.

The Ministry of Social Development's Statistical Report for 2005, published yesterday, shows that fewer than 1 per cent of all children in the eligible 5 to 13 age group received the widely advertised subsidy as at last June 30.

The numbers doubled from 2111 in June 2004 to 4285 last June, after the Working for Families package raised the subsidy for middle-income families from 77c to $1.10 an hour and the income threshold for a two-child family from $38,500 to $58,800 a year. But the other 501,495 children - 99.2 per cent - of that group got no subsidy.

Social Development Minister David Benson-Pope said the number on subsidy had risen further after it was raised again to $1.24 an hour last October and adjusted for inflation to $1.28 from April 1.

But he said the number receiving the subsidy increased only from 1500 in April 2004 to 3300 at the end of April this year - still only 0.7 per cent of the age group. The discrepancy between the April and June figures appears to reflect the Easter school holidays.

The operations manager of the Out of School Care And Recreation (Oscar) Foundation, Tina Green, said the sector was concerned about too few places in after-school care and too few families using the subsidy.

"I guess the perception still is that it's for low-income families. That's changed - we have middle-income families that are eligible as well. But it takes a while for that to get out there."

The figures for preschool childcare subsidies last June are more respectable - up from 24,237 in 2004 to 33,330 last year, or from about 9 per cent to 12 per cent of all children under 5.

The subsidy rates for preschoolers were slightly higher than the school-age rates before Working for Families, but both the rates and the income thresholds have been the same as for schoolchildren since October 2004.

Mr Benson-Pope said the April numbers for preschoolers rose from 23,200 in April 2004 to 31,200 this April - 11 per cent of all under-5s. He said the total getting either preschool or school-age subsidies this April was 3900 more than expected.

But Early Childhood Council chief executive Sue Thorne said the numbers were incredibly low. "There has been plenty of advertising about what people can get and who qualifies."

A survey by her council of 249 childcare centres last July found that only 2 per cent of the centres said more than three-quarters of their children were subsidised.

WORKING FOR (A FEW) FAMILIES

April 2004
Pre-schoolers getting childcare subsidy 8.2pc
Children 5-13 getting after-school subsidy 0.3 pc

April 2006
Pre-schoolers getting childcare subsidy 11.1pc
Children 5-13 getting after-school subsidy 0.7 pc