2. Alternative Fee Growth Percentage Cap

Welcome to the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Worker Retention Payment – Alternative Fee Growth Percentage Cap application form. You may begin anywhere in this application form. Please save as you go. 

This application form is only to be used in limited circumstances where an applicant has evidence that restricting a service’s fee growth to the standard fee constraint condition (a maximum of 4.4 per cent fee increase between 8 August 2024 and 7 August 2025) will seriously impact the financial viability of the service.

Before commencing your application, we recommend you download a copy of the form to collate the information you will require to complete your application. You will need your Provider and Service CRN details to complete your application.

Your application number will appear once you commence your application.

For queries about the guidelines, deadlines, or questions in the form, contact us on 1300 667 276 business hours or email ccshelpdesk@education.gov.au. You will need to provide your application number for this Alternative Fee Growth Percentage Cap application form, which is different to your ECEC Worker Retention Payment Grant Application Form application number. Your application number will appear once you commence your application.

View the ECEC Worker Retention Payment Grant Opportunity Guidelines (Guidelines). For technical support: 

• download the SmartyGrants Help Guide for Applicants 
• check out the SmartyGrants Applicant Frequently Asked Questions 

Before commencing your application, we recommend you download a copy of the form to collate the information you will require to complete your application. You will need your Provider and Service CRN details to complete your application.

To save your partially completed application, press the Save and Close button.

To resume, log in and click the My Submissions navigation link at the top of the screen, in the menu header.

You can download your application, whether it’s in draft or completed form, as a PDF. Simply click the Download PDF button located at the bottom of the last page of the application can also download your application, whether draft or completed, as a PDF. Click on the 'Download PDF' button at the bottom of the last page of the application form.

A Review and Submit button is at the end of the form. You must review your application before you can submit it.

You cannot submit your application until:

• all the compulsory questions are completed; and
• there are no validation errors.

You cannot edit your application once it’s submitted. If you need to make changes to your application, please send us an email ccshelpdesk@education.gov.au.

You will need to provide your application number for this Alternative Fee Growth Percentage Cap application form, which is different to your ECEC Worker Retention Payment Grant Application Form application number.  

When you submit, you will get a confirmation email with a copy of your application. This will be sent to the email you used to register.

If you do not receive a confirmation of submission email you should presume your submission has NOT been submitted.

Check the email hasn't landed in your spam or junk email folder.

You will need to upload attachments to support your application. To do so, your documents must be saved on your computer or a storage device.

Allow enough time for each file to upload before attaching another file.

While attachments can be up to 25MB each, it’s best to keep them to 5MB each.

Accepted file types: .bmp, .doc, .docx, .gif, .jpeg, .jpg, .msg, .pdf, .png, .pps, .ppt, .pptx, .txt, .xls, .xlsb, .xlsx.

Multiple people can collaborate on an application using the same login details, but please ensure that only one person is editing the form at any given time. Make sure the application is completed and submitted by the authorised representative or officer and remember to save your progress as you go.

31 July 2026, 5pm (AEST)