Laws
Not vaccinating your child can affect your childcare options and government payments. Check out the relevant laws and rules here, and how it could affect you.
Childcare requirements
Not vaccinating your child can affect your childcare options and payments from government, due to new laws that came into effect in 2016.
In Queensland, if your child is not up to date with their vaccinations, your childcare service can:
- refuse enrolment
- cancel enrolment or refuse attendance
- conditionally accept enrolment or attendance.
To prove your child’s vaccinations are up to date, you may need to show:
- an immunisation history statement when first enrolling
- and an updated immunisation history statement when your child passes the 2 & 4, 6, 12, 18 months and 4 years vaccination milestones.
More about these laws can be found here or from your childcare centre.
Family assistance payments
Some family assistance payments are reliant on your children being fully vaccinated at key milestones. These are the Child Care Benefit, the Child Care Rebate and the Family Tax Benefit Part A Supplement.
To be eligible to receive these payments, your child must be fully vaccinated at each key milestone, be on a recognised immunisation catch-up schedule or have an approved exemption.
Family assistance payments are the responsibility of the Australian Government not the Queensland Government. To find out how these payments might be affected by your child’s immunisation status, visit Services Australia.
