Nearly a quarter of the money spent on the Government’s flagship FamilyBoost policy has gone to administration, not to families to help with childcare.

So far, the scheme has cost $62 million, $14 million of which is administration costs.

“That is taxpayer money that isn’t helping families with childcare, rather going to the administration costs of a scheme that is quickly becoming a farce for parents and an embarrassment for the Finance Minister,” Labour finance and economy spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said.

“Nicola Willis catastrophically botched the numbers, recently being forced to admit only a few hundred families are getting the full amount for childcare.

“Of the 130,000 families she claimed would receive some support, a figure she revised to 100,000 upon coming into Government, only half are getting any money at all. Now we find out that nearly a quarter of the cost of the scheme is being spent administering it.

“This scheme is unnecessarily complicated for time-poor parents, who have to keep invoices for childcare and submit them for a rebate. It’s clearly complicated for officials too given $14 million is being spent on administration.

“Costs are piling up on families under this Government and people are not getting what they were promised to help them with the cost of living,” Barbara Edmonds said.

© Scoop Media