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Parents have been hit with childcare fee increases up to double the benefit they were handed in the Federal Budget.
Centres and family day care facilities across the state raised fees by up to 25 per cent this week, swallowing the extra 13 per cent Child Care Benefit they were given last month.
The Courier-Mail revealed last month some centres had already told parents to brace for price rises following the Budget announcement.
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Family Day Care Association Queensland executive manager Jan Birch said most of its carers had increased hourly costs but the percentages varied.
A loss of about 25 per cent in Federal Government funding the year before and increased costs meant some fees had to increase.
C&K general manager of operations Scott Coulter said its fees had gone up an average of 4.2 per cent, or $2 to $3-per-day, across the board.
A spokesman for ABC Learning Centres said gross fees had increased by about 4 per cent.
Labor's family and community affairs spokeswoman Jenny Macklin yesterday said the Government had promised relief from spiralling child care costs and needed to act immediately on some of the more "alarming" fee hikes.
"The Howard Government must outline its plan to deal with revelations that childcare subsidies are being swallowed up by fee hikes," she said. "Parents deserve to know why their child care fees are going up by such a large amount."
Family and Community Services Minister Mal Brough, who could not be contacted yesterday because he was travelling in remote indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, told Parliament last month he had "faith" most centres "would act appropriately".
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- reprinted from the Courier-Mail