Service NSW $500 BASC Voucher
Dear Families,
As you may be aware the NSW Government has released a $500 Before and After School Care (BASC) Voucher for NSW families. To assist our families we are excited to announce Grays Point Activity Centre (GPAC) has successfully been approved to accept BASC Vouchers. The BASC Voucher can be utilised to pay for your child’s gap fee (amount parents pay after CSS has been applied) or full fee (if family does not receive CCS).
Department of Education (DoE) and Service NSW are expecting Centres to implement several new steps and procedures to confirm the authorisation and use of the Voucher, this includes a manual entry of data on an excel spreadsheet following the individual sessions your child has attended, which is to be submitted at the end of each Term. This means that we will not be able to receive Voucher payments from the NSW Government until after the reconciled period following your child’s physical attendance.
GPAC Management Committee and Staff have provided the below guidelines to assist families as to how the Voucher will work for our Centre, these are also subject to change as the BASC Voucher program rolls out:
- Parent BASC Voucher Agreement – this must be completed by the parent who receives the CCS for your family, also providing authorisation for your family information included on the agreement to be shared with Services NSW and Department of Education on your behalf of receiving the $500 BASC Voucher for your family.
- Parents will need to email through the BASC Voucher – we will only be accepting an email/ PDF copy along with a complete and signed copy of the Parent BASC Voucher Agreement
- Term 1 fees must be paid in full as previously issued on your statement, by Friday 18th of March 2022, for your family to be eligible for the BASC voucher to be applied. The voucher will not be applied to any Term 1 fees. Vouchers will not be accepted from families with accounts in arrears as the voucher does not cover previous periods of care utilised.
- Once we submit Term 1 attendances to Centrelink, we understand this is when the Centre will receive your Voucher payment for Term 1 attendances, which will enable your account to become in a credit for Term 2.
Please read the FAQ below to help assist in understanding what the rollout of these Vouchers will look like for GPAC families who are interesting in utilising the Voucher.
Who Can Apply?
Families with children enrolled in a before and after school care service ages of 4 to 13 years that attend a primary school in NSW can receive a $500 voucher per child, this includes children who are starting kindergarten in 2022.
New families are welcome to join GPAC and use their voucher once their account and membership is established.
How can I apply?
Apply for this voucher through your Service NSW app selecting the voucher tab. Once you have successfully applied and received your voucher, you are to email admin@gpactivitycentre.org your voucher. Our admin staff will then enter your code manually via the MyService NSW Business App. The voucher will then be valid to be used until June 30th 2023 and can be used for both Before and After School Care and Vacation Care. Please note, it is unclear yet when GPAC will receive the value of your Voucher, once received we will place the credit onto your families account.
When Can The Voucher Be Used?
These Vouchers can be used for services offered on any weekday during a school term, or during Vacation Care. The Voucher does not cover the costs for incursions, excursions or any additional fees, or those that CCS does not cover, only session fees. It cannot be used to cover the $50 membership fee.
When Can I Apply?
You can apply to Service NSW for a $500 BASC voucher from 28th February until 30th September 2022 and must be redeemed before 31st December 2022. Families will also need to complete the BASC Voucher Agreement to ensure the Service has all required information of your family to submit to NSW Government, Service NSW and Department of Education.
How Long Are They Valid For?
The BASC Vouchers can be used only at one centre and are valid until 30 June 2023. Redeemed by 31st December 2022.
What Happens When Care is Shared Between Separated Parents?
Under the BASC Voucher Program, only one voucher can be issued for each child. Service NSW states that it is encouraged for parents to come to an agreement in relation to how to use the voucher under their circumstances.
How GPAC Will Redeem These Vouchers?
As mentioned above there is a lengthy process to receive the BASC Voucher Payments, if you wish to utilise the Voucher you will need to continue to make payments toward your invoices until your BASC Voucher payment has been paid from NSW Government to GPAC.
Please note, we have not been advised how the Service will receive the Voucher payment on your behalf and need to continue to facilitate the running of our Service based on Centre fees, this means your account must be paid as per direction of GPAC admin staff.
Families will not be eligible to receive refunds on their Term 1 accounts once we receive the BASC voucher to your GPAC account, your payment to GPAC will become a continuous credit on your account until it has been exhausted and your account lists you have an amount due. GPAC will not be receiving the $500 as a lump sum. We will only get paid after care has been reconciled via CCS and we get the balance paid.
As you can imagine, we are truly grateful for our families to have the opportunity to receive this Voucher from the NSW Government. We hope from reading the information above you understand that this is a lengthy procedure and our Centre will continue to educate ourselves on the evolving requirements of this program and appreciate your kindness and support in navigating through this new manual procedure.
If you have any additional questions in relation to the $500 BASC Voucher, we would greatly appreciate if you could email admin@gpacitivitycentre.org with all your enquires. Please note Ellyse and Jai (GPAC admin team) are also educators engaging in supervision and activities on the floor and will contact you when they are actively available in the office.
Kind Regards,
Grays Point Activity Centre
