Budget 2016: $199M for childcare IT, $50M for myGov

The government is allocating $199.4 million over the next four years to fund the building of an IT system to support the implementation of child care measures announced in last year’s budget.

In the 2015-2016 budget, the government announced reforms to make child care more affordable and accessible. This involved investing an additional $3.5 billion over five years, which includes a Child Care Subsidy.

The implementation of the subsidy has been deferred by one year until 1 July 2018. The delay was due to the Family Tax Benefit reforms required to fund the child care package not being passed by the Senate, this year’s budget documents said.

Meanwhile, $50.5 million is provided over five years to the Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Digital Transformation Office (DTO) to support operations of the myGov service.

This includes $45.1 million over four years for the core operational component of myGov, and $5.4 million over two years for a joint team including the DHS, the DTO, and Department of the Treasury and Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to identify future developments to meet user needs.

Finally, the government is also providing $5.3 million over two years to create a Trusted Digital Identity Framework.