Families miss out on €48-a-month in childcare support after scheme ‘botched’
Around 9,000 families will not receive supports, announced in the budget, of up to €48 a month.
Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone admitted that she “can’t say exactly” when these payments will be introduced but it would not be before 2018.
The Affordable Childcare Scheme will not be fully rolled out from September, as promised, because the Government has failed to pass the required legislation and has not yet set up a website to allow families apply for the supports.
Calling it a row-back, Fianna Fáil children’s spokeswoman Anne Rabbitte said the “botched” childcare scheme now puts the squeeze on middle-income families.
“In an effort to score political points, Minister Zappone rushed the Single Affordable Childcare Scheme, and we are now left with a system that is scrambling to meet even its most basic requirements,” she said.
“The Single Affordable Childcare scheme was designed around an ICT system which would determine the level of subsidy each family would be entitled to.
“However, with just five months to go until the scheme opens, we are now learning that this ICT infrastructure will not be ready,” said Ms Rabbitte.
“As a result of this change, it now appears that there will be considerable cuts to the levels of subsidy provided to middle-income earners. This is an extremely frustrating and worrying development.”
While the universal element of the scheme — which applies to all children between six months and 36 months — will be brought in from September and provide up to €20 a week in childcare support, the second, income-based payment is delayed.
Ms Zappone said: “We are not quite there yet because we weren’t able to complete the building of one of the most complex IT systems going.
“Part of the challenge there is the sharing of information between Minister Varadkar’s department, the Department of Social Protection, and also the Revenue Commissioners’ information on income. There are lots of issues in relation to legislation on that as well.”
Ms Zappone said existing schemes will be retained so that payments can be made to the lowest earners, but she admitted that families closer to the €47,500 income threshold will miss out.
“There will be some children that may not be able to receive the size of subsidy that we had hoped,” she said.
Asked when these payments would be given to parents and whether they would be backdated, she said: “I can’t say exactly when, it will be in the new year sometime.”
She said legislation allowing the Department of Social Protection to access income data held by Revenue would also have to be passed, but again Ms Zappone could not say when this would happen.
As part of Budget 2017, €19m was allocated for the Affordable Childcare Scheme to fund the development costs and allow for the entire rollout of the scheme from September.
Ms Zappone said: “Given that we weren’t able to give the full affordable scheme in September, we said how can we deliver to most families in September, and that’s why we are announcing these measures where we are using the current schemes as well as introducing a new one which is the universal element so that as many families as possible will benefit.”
Teresa Heeney of Early Childhood Ireland said it was a “little disappointing” that IT and administrative arrangements won’t be in place to deliver the scheme as soon as was expected.
Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar said the universal element of the scheme is a “real game-changer” as it will provide childcare subsidies to all children under the age of three. “It’s a big step forward giving many parents, many families, the opportunity to take advantage of work opportunities and education opportunities so they can build a better life for the families,” he said.
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