Updated
It's 6:30am, the sun's not even up, but for retiree Marylu Liversidge the day has already begun.
She's
making the journey across Melbourne to look after her grandchildren so
her daughter and son-in-law can both go out and earn a living."I don't see it as a burden," she told 7.30.
"I'm recently retired so I can be more flexible than I have been in the past.
"[It] must be very difficult for families if they don't have grandparents as a backup."Ms Liversidge, 65, is just one of an increasing number of grandparents pitching in to ease the cost of child care, and with changes to the Child Care Rebate starting in July, many more families could find themselves asking nanna and pop for help.
Older generation plugging the childcare gap
From July 2, the two current payments, the Child Care Benefit and the Child Care Rebate, will be abolished and replaced with the Child Care Subsidy.
And for the first time, that will be means tested.
But the changes will not kick in automatically.
Each family will have to let Centrelink know about their specific situation.
In order to calculate the subsidy, Centrelink will need to know the family's combined income, the amount each parent is working and the type of child care being used.
For some families that will mean they are better off, but for others it will be a lot worse.
For families that do take a hit it could put even more pressure on grandparents to help out.
Anne McLeish, from Grandparents Australia, said the older generation did an extraordinary job plugging childcare gaps.
"They play an enormous role when you look at what goes on in individual families," she told 7.30.
"Parents are starting to admit that they wouldn't be able to cope without the grandparents."She thinks the Government should be paying them for the contribution.
"They definitely should be subsidised for the care that they provide," she said.
"That may not mean an exchange of money but it may mean tax breaks or some other incentives."
Child care affordable — 'to a limit'
Ms Liversidge's daughter Alice Zsembery, an engineering contractor, is aware just how lucky she is her mother can help out.
"She feeds them breakfast, gets them dressed, does their teeth, gets my son off to kinder and then gets my daughter home to look after her for the day," she told 7.30.
"Then by the time we're home from work, she's back with a meal prepared for us and often the kids bathed."
The family pays for two days child care a week with Ms Liversidge making up the other days.
"In terms of the cost of child care for most families I know, it's affordable to a limit," Ms Zsembery said.
"Then if you look at it for more than a few days a week, it suddenly become unaffordable."
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