Increase to minimum NCS subsidy rate: Co-payment recalculation and parental declarations has been added
Please see the below important update for ELC/SAC providers on the increase to the minimum subsidy rate for the National Childcare Scheme (NCS).
Minimum NCS subsidy increase
As previously communicated, from 2 January 2023, the minimum rate for NCS subsidies will increase from €0.50 to €1.40. The increase, which was introduced by Minister Roderic O’Gorman as part of Budget 2023 measures, means that if parents are in receipt of a subsidy which is less than the maximum, they will receive a higher subsidy towards their childcare fees.
Awards will be recalculated with this new rate and updated accordingly. This will affect existing claims. Service providers do not need to modify the claim if the hours are remaining the same. However, service providers will have to recalculate co-payment and issue new parental agreements.
Identifying affected claims
To assist with identifying which NCS claims in your service have been impacted, a new page called ‘Budget 2023 Claims affected’ will be available on the Early Years Hive from 25 November. This page will be under the Registration menu on Hive and will display the claims that will change during the uplift process. Please note that the uplift process may take up to 10 days from 25 November and not all of the claims will be available on this page from day one.
Please see the how-to guide here for more information on this new page.
Parental agreement
To assist with this additional administrative work, from 2 December, you will be able to print out Parental Agreements for NCS directly from the Hive. This new feature will be available on the ‘Parental Agreement and Co-payment” section of NCS claims on the NCS registrations page. Once you have calculated the co-payment for an NCS claim, the Parental Agreement will include all co-payment weekly amounts, the child’s name, the claim to and from date etc. this will be available to download and print from this page. Further information on this new feature will be available later next week.
Please see the how-to guide here for more information on the Parental Agreement.
