At Least 140,000 Families Cut Off From Childcare Benefits For Failure To Vaccinate Their Kids

Over 140,000 families were cut off from getting their childcare benefits for not giving their children vaccinations.

Parents of an estimated 142,793 children under the age of five were cut off from up to $15,000 in taxpayer-funded child care payments under the Federal Government’s “No Jab, No Pay” policy.

Figures showed that parents�in Adelaide city and the Gold Coast Hinterland were mostly the ones who failed to�vaccinate their children.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt told TODAY that the controversial policy was able to vaccinate 200,000 more children.

“That’s good news but there is more to do, so we’re going to keep pushing hard. It’s a tough policy because this is about public health and the safety of our beautiful kids,” he said.

The policy, which was introduced in January 2016, states that ‘conscientiously objecting’ to vaccinations on non-medical grounds is not a valid exemption.

The average immunisation rate across Australia is 92.2 percent.

In Sydney, the suburbs in the north, inner west and east recorded some of the highest rates of unvaccinated children.�The�eastern suburbs recorded child vaccination rates lower than Australia’s average, with only 88.9 per cent of five-year-olds vaccinated for diseases including whooping cough, measles and hepatitis.

Source:�9news.com.au

Clare Whitfield Chief Editor

Clare Whitfield is the Editor of Stay at Home Mum and a recognised voice in practical home management for Australian families. Based in the northern suburbs of Sydney, she balances editorial leadership with life as a stay at home mum to two school age children. Her background in home economics and more than a decade of experience in recipe development, family budgeting, and household systems inform her work.

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