Dodgy daycare rort smashed

GRANDPARENTS have been used as cash cows by unscrupulous family daycare providers to rip off taxpayers to the tune of $2.8 million a week.

But the rort has been smashed in a Government crackdown which has already saved $110 million in a year.

Some family daycare providers had been charging vulnerable grandparents three times their normal rates because they receive a special 100 per cent subsidy.

When the grandparent benefit scheme was capped last year there was an immediate drop in the bill taxpayers were picking up from $3.8 million a week to just $1 million a week.

Taxpayers had been overcharged more than $110 million in a year past year.

The benefit scheme subsidises the entire cost of childcare for grandparents who are the primary carer.

An example of the rort is where the usual rate was $12 an hour, grandparents would be charged $36 an hour, with taxpayers picking up the bill.