Question: How can I get free childcare during the crisis?

Answer passage (source: Australia):
page_title: Early Childhood Education and Care COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions
section_headers: Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package–information for providers and services
How will the Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package payments affect families on Additional Child Care Subsidy?
section_content: The Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package payments will be made
instead of the usual Child Care Subsidy (CCS) and Additional Child Care
Subsidy (ACCS) payments.
If the family’s current ACCS determination continues past the end of the Early
Childhood Education and Care Relief Package payment period, they will return
to their ACCS entitlement. This will be the case for most families receiving
ACCS (grandparent).
To ensure that ACCS (child wellbeing) continues to flow when the system
returns to normal, if a family’s ACCS (child wellbeing) determination expires
during the period, services will need to apply for a new determination. We
encourage providers to submit determinations prior to the resumption of the
regular system to avoid any gaps in ACCS (child wellbeing). If a family’s CCS
cancels during the payment period they will need to reapply for CCS (and be
assessed as eligible) for a service to receive ACCS (child wellbeing) payments
when regular payments resume.
If a family has submitted an application for ACCS (temporary financial
hardship) their eligibility will be assessed and payment made up to 5 April
2020.
If a person’s ACCS (transition to work) eligibility expires during the Relief
Package period or the person requests to cease the ACCS (transition to work),
they will need to apply for ACCS (transition to work) if they meet the
eligibility criteria for the payment to recommence on 28 June 2020.

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
The answer is about child care payment applications, not the program itself.
This answer only applies to those receiving a subsidy, and not for free childcare.

Reviewer ratings:
Acceptable
Bad

Answer passage (source: Australia):
page_title: Early Childhood Education and Care COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions
section_headers: Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package–information for providers and services
What is the new child care payment under the Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package?
section_content: The new payment under the Early Childhood Education and Care Relief Package is
a payment to support child care services (including Centre Based Day Care,
Family Day Care, Outside School Hours Care and In Home Care) to remain open.
Due to the impact of COVID-19, the early childhood education and care sector
has reported significant decreases in attendance. These payments will ensure
services can remain open, and families who need it can access care.
Weekly payments will be approximately 50 per cent of services' fee revenue or
50 per cent of the existing hourly rate cap, whichever is lower, for sessions
of care in the fortnight preceding 2 March 2020 (i.e. Monday 17 February 2020
through to 28 February 2020).
The payments for services providing vacation care only will be calculated on
the equivalent of the average weekly amount for the vacation period between
Term 3 and Term 4 in 2019 (September-October school holidays).
The payments are made in lieu of any Child Care Subsidy and Additional Child
Care Subsidy.
Receiving these payments does not preclude your service from accessing other
Government initiatives to support businesses.

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
The answer provides a detailed explanation of a child care subsidy program.
This does not answer the question of free childcare, and only pertains to subsidized health care.

Reviewer ratings:
Excellent
Bad

Answer passage (source: Australia):
page_title: Families
section_headers: Child Care Subsidy and child care
section_content: You won’t need to pay child care fees when you access child care between 6
April and 28 June 2020.
During this time, you should:

enrol or re-enrol your child with a service
keep your child enrolled
continue using child care as you need.

If you need to enrol or re-enrol your child you should talk to your child care
service. You’ll also need to confirm their
enrolment
with us.
If you need to find a child care service, you can use the Child Care
Finder website.
What else you need to know is different if:

you were getting Child Care Subsidy before 6 April 2020
you’re new to child care.

If you were getting Child Care Subsidy before 6 April 2020
You won’t get Child Care Subsidy and Additional Child Care Subsidy during this
time. But you should make sure you stay eligible for Child Care
Subsidy, for example
by:

continuing to care for your child at least 14% of the time
meeting immunisation requirements
telling us if you have a change in your circumstances.

On 29 June 2020, your Child Care Subsidy will start again as long as you stay
eligible. There’s nothing you’ll need to do to start it again.
You should continue to update your family income
estimate as necessary, especially if you get Family Tax Benefit.
Fees before 6 April 2020
Your child care service may waive your out of pocket fees between 23 March and
5 April 2020. You should speak to them about this.
Absences before 6 April 2020
Due to coronavirus, you have 20 extra absences per child for the 2019-20
financial year. This means you can get up to 62 absences this year for any
reason.
Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) Temporary Financial Hardship claims
before 6 April 2020
If you’ve already claimed ACCS Temporary Financial Hardship, we can only pay
it to 5 April 2020.
There’s no need to claim it between 6 April and 28 June 2020 as you won’t need
to pay fees.
Centrepay deductions
If you pay your fees through
Centrepay, remember to check
your deductions. You can suspend or cancel them if you need.
Use our online help guides to either suspend your
deduction or cancel your
deduction.
If you’re new to child care
You may want to start getting Child Care Subsidy when it starts again on 29
June 2020.
You should claim now,
even though we won’t pay it until late June.
Read more about if you’re new to child care.

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
The answer is a very detailed response to the question.
This answer could be more specific to free childcare, but overall answers the question.

Reviewer ratings:
Excellent
Acceptable