By Chris Brown

Working Parents Benefit

Alberta announces relief for working parents’ child care costs

Feb 24, 2021 | 2:13 PM

“We are providing a one-time benefit of $561 per child for parents that have enrolled their children in unlicensed and licensed, daycare, day homes, out-of-school care and preschools,” Children’s Services Minister Rebecca Schulz announced this morning.

Schulz says the pandemic has created significant stress for working families, many of whom include essential service workers.

“For a variety of reasons, enrolment in child care centres has been down significantly this past year. We recognize the stress and anxiety families continue to face,” she said at a Calgary child care centre. “That’s why we’ve chosen to return these dollars back into the pockets of hard-working Alberta parents who have really been working to fuel our economy over the last year and who also rely on high-quality child care to go to work.”

Families are eligible for the Working Parents Benefit if they have children in any form of child care, their income is under $100,000 and have paid for three months of child care between April 1 and Dec. 31 of last year.

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A MyAlberta Digital ID is needed to apply for the benefit and you must provide receipts for your child care costs.

Families can start applying online for the benefit March 1-5 with the opening staggered by region. The application portal will be open until March 31.

The funding for the benefit comes from unspent money in the children’s services ministry.