The CCS hourly rate cap.

The Child Care Subsidy doesn't pay a percentage of your full daily fee. It pays a percentage of the lower of your centre's hourly fee or the government's hourly rate cap. For 2026-27 that cap is $15.19 per hour for centre based day care for children under school age.

The 2026-27 caps

• Centre Based Day Care (CBDC), under school age: $15.19/hour
• Centre Based Day Care, school age: $13.30/hour
• Family Day Care: $14.08/hour
• Outside School Hours Care: $13.30/hour
• In-Home Care: $41.31/hour per family

The cap is the maximum amount the government will subsidise. The cap is reviewed each year and indexed.

How the cap affects your fee

Imagine an 11-hour day at $15.19/hour. That comes to $167.09. If your centre charges less than $167.09 for an 11-hour day, the subsidy applies to the full daily fee. If your centre charges more than $167.09, the subsidy only applies up to $167.09, and you pay 100% of the rest.

Across our 4 centres, fees range from $135 (the 9am-3pm preschool sessions at Roseville and St Ives Chase) to $185 (Possum Room at Normanhurst). For the 11-hour days, the daily fee sits at or close to the cap, so nearly all of the fee attracts subsidy. The shorter preschool sessions work differently: $135 over 6 hours is $22.50 an hour, so the subsidy is calculated on the capped portion, 6 × $15.19 = $91.14 a day.

A worked example: a family on 80% CCS

Let's say a family with combined income of $135,000 has a CCS rate of about 80% (90%, minus 1 percentage point for each $5,000 of income over $88,520). Their child is in our Possum Room at Normanhurst, which charges $185/day for an 11-hour day.

• Daily fee: $185.00
• Capped portion (subsidised): 11 × $15.19 = $167.09
• Above-cap portion (full fee, no subsidy): $185.00 - $167.09 = $17.91
• Subsidy: 80% × $167.09 = $133.67
• Daily gap fee: $185.00 - $133.67 = $51.33

If the family chose 5% withholding (the default), Services Australia keeps back 5% of the $133.67 subsidy (about $6.68), so they'd pay about $58.01 per day. The withheld amount is paid back at tax time if their income estimate was right.

The same maths for a 6-hour preschool session

The 9am-3pm preschool sessions at Roseville and St Ives Chase charge $135 for 6 hours. For the same family on 80% CCS:

• Daily fee: $135.00
• Capped portion (subsidised): 6 × $15.19 = $91.14
• Above-cap portion (full fee, no subsidy): $135.00 - $91.14 = $43.86
• Subsidy: 80% × $91.14 = $72.91
• Daily gap fee: $135.00 - $72.91 = $62.09

This is why, at those two centres, the full day often costs less out of pocket than the shorter session, despite the higher advertised fee: the longer day spreads the fee across more subsidised hours. The centre websites show both options side by side, and the calculator handles both session types.

Why is the cap there?

The hourly rate cap is in place to prevent unlimited subsidy of high-fee services. Without a cap, a centre charging $300/day would receive a much higher subsidy than a centre charging $150/day, despite delivering the same hours of care. The cap rewards efficient services and stops the subsidy paying more and more without limit.

Try the calculator

The gap-fee calculator works all of this out for you. Just enter your income, your activity, and the centre, and it shows what you'd pay out of pocket.