| 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 were recalculated with this new rate and updated accordingly. This affects 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. To help service with additional admin work the Department agreed that services have two months to create and sign new Parental Agreement. Parental Agreement Pobal has developed a new semi-automated Parental Agreement. This new feature is now 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. and will be available to download and print from this page. Please see the how-to guide here for more information on the Parental Agreement.Service providers may still use their existing agreement template if they prefer, there is no requirement to use this new version. General guidance on creating a parent agreement can be viewed on the Hive here. |
NCS parental agreement – now available on Hive
