The federal government will give families the option to receive childcare rebate payments fortnightly from July 1 next year to ease cost-of-living pressures, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.
The Greens commended the PM - for implementing their idead.
Announcing the move in Perth on Friday, Ms Gillard said that for the first time parents would have access to the 50 per cent rebate at the time they had to pay childcare fees.
It would assist "those families who find it hard to balance the budget while waiting for a rebate", she said.
Families would also be able to choose whether or not they had their rebate paid directly to their childcare service and receive an immediate fortnightly fee reduction, or continue to receive the rebate directly.
At present, a family earning $80,000 with one child in full-time care would part with more than $220 per week in out-of-pocket costs until they received the rebate at the end of each quarter.
Under the new proposal, the same family's out-of-pocket costs would fall to just over $110 per week, Ms Gillard said.
The Greens have taken credit for the initiative, moved in the Senate, noting that the government had made no effort to make the change, which cost nothing to the budget bottom line.
"It was a change that the Greens initiated, which had the support to pass the Senate," the party's childcare spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young told AAP.
"The prime minister has now accepted the wisdom of this initiative, which is another example of the Greens delivering good outcomes for the community."
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