📁 WAYS OOSH
WAYS OOSH offers After School Care and Vacation Care for primary-aged children at the Russell King Building, North Bondi. CCS-approved, family-run since 1985.
Learn about WAYS OOSH → Enrol nowCentrelink’s Child Care Subsidy (CCS) is the difference between paying $40/day for OOSH and paying $9.50/day. Most families get it sorted in about 2 weeks. Some families spend months stuck on the same seven things. Here’s what trips people up — and how to skip those weeks.
You probably have your own CRN (Customer Reference Number) from when you registered for Medicare or other Centrelink services. Your child needs their own. If they don’t have one, the CCS application can’t proceed.
log into myGov → Centrelink → tell us about a new child or family member. Services Australia issues the child’s CRN within 2 weeks. You can submit your OOSH enrolment in parallel — Sarah holds the CCS step until the CRN arrives.
CCS asks you to estimate your 2025/26 combined household income. If you under-estimate (because you forgot a partner’s bonus, or rental income, or anything else), Centrelink will overpay you all year — then claw it back at tax time. Families have been hit with $1,500–4,000 reconciliation debts because of this.
over-estimate slightly. You’ll pay a bit more out-of-pocket during the year but you’ll get a refund at tax time, not a bill.
The activity test determines how many subsidised hours per fortnight you get. Most parents declare “I work 38 hours/week” and stop there. But CCS lets you count: work, study, volunteer, paid leave, looking for work (within reason), self-employment hours that include travel.
read the full list of “recognised activities” on the Services Australia website and re-do your declaration. Most parents qualify for more subsidised hours than they initially claim.
If you’ve declared that your child will use OOSH on Mondays and Wednesdays but you book a casual Friday, Centrelink can still subsidise it — but the booking has to be properly entered in Owna so the subsidy claim picks it up. Casual ad-hoc days are common stumbling blocks.
for permanent days, set up a recurring booking in Owna. For one-off casual days, book them through the Owna app at least 24 hours ahead.
If you start your child at OOSH before Centrelink approves your CCS, you pay the full rate up-front. Centrelink will back-pay the subsidy once approved — but only for a limited backdating window (currently 28 days). If your CCS takes 6 weeks to come through, you’ll lose the first 14 days of subsidy.
submit the CCS application BEFORE your child’s first OOSH day. The approval often arrives within 5–10 business days; you just need to start the clock.
Got a pay rise mid-year? Started a side business? Your CCS needs updating within 14 days. Forgetting this is one of the top reasons families end up with tax-time debts.
set a recurring 6-monthly reminder to check your CCS income estimate matches reality. Update via myGov in 2 minutes.
For CCS, BOTH parents (if you’re a couple) need to have linked their Centrelink to myGov. We see this constantly — one partner has it sorted, the other hasn’t logged into myGov in years. The CCS application stalls.
both partners log into myGov, link Centrelink (instructions on the Services Australia site), and confirm income details. Takes 10 minutes each.
The Services Australia phone team on 136 150 (Mon–Fri 8am–8pm) is genuinely good at walking parents through CCS. Have your CRN ready before you call. If you’re stuck because of an OOSH-specific question (e.g. “is my casual booking eligible?”), call Sarah on 0433 245 322 — she’s helped hundreds of families through CCS and knows the patterns.
If you do three things, you skip 95% of CCS trouble:
Written by the WAYS Team · Updated 2026. WAYS Youth & Family is a registered charity, family-run since 1985, based at the Russell King Building, 63A Wairoa Avenue, North Bondi NSW 2026.
