No Jab, No Pay – New immunisation legislation

From 1 January 2016, all children under the age of 20 must be up-to-date with their immunisations, on a catch up schedule or have an exemption in place to continue receiving the Child Care Benefit (CCB), Child Care Rebate (CCR) and the Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A payment.

Vaccination objections based on personal or philosophical beliefs will no longer be an approved exemption from these requirements. This means if your child is not immunised and does not have an approved medical exemption, you will not be able to access these family payments. Exemptions will still apply for children with medical reasons or natural immunity which has been certified in writing by a general practitioner.

Families will be informed by Centrelink that their child/children do not meet the immunisation requirements for family assistance payments, and will be encouraged to speak with their doctor about updating their vaccination records or commencing an appropriate immunisation catch-up schedule.

You can check what vaccinations your child needs by speaking with your doctor in the first instance, or at the National Immunisation Program website.

You can still choose not to immunise your child, but you won’t be able to receive CCB, CCR and the FTB Part A supplement.

Immunisation catch-up arrangements

Funding for catch-up arrangements falls into two categories:

  1. Free catch up for children under 10 years of age

  2. Free catch up for young persons aged 10 to 19 years of families who currently receive family assistance payments (time-limited: 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2017)

For more details, read the Immunisation Catch-up Arrangements Fact Sheet.

Where can I find more information?

To find out more visit the Department of Human Services website or read the Ministerial media release.

Child Care Services can contact the Child Care Management System (CCMS) Helpdesk on 1300 667 276.CCMS Helpdesk operators are available to take your calls from 9am to 5:30pm AEST/AEDT Monday to Friday.

Source: www.mychild.gov.au