AS parents across the region are busy planning for the year ahead, they can now access new NSW Creative Kids vouchers, providing them with $100 for every school-age child to help cover the cost of enrolment for creative and cultural learning activities.
Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall is urging all parents to take advantage of this new scheme to help with costs at home.
“Parents can use one voucher for every school-age child per year to help meet the cost of structured creative and cultural activities, such as music lessons, languages, coding, drama and theatre, photography and graphic design,” Mr Marshall said.
“The start of the school year is just around the corner and I’m encouraging parents to get in early by jumping on the Service NSW website to register for their Creative Kids vouchers.
“Involvement in creative and cultural learning activities is critical to a child’s growth and development but the enrolment costs all add to the family budget and can be prohibitive.
“The NSW Government recognises that cost of living is a major issue for families and because of our strong budget position, we are proud to be providing this extra assistance for children to participate in these valuable creative and cultural programs.”
Mr Marshall said Creative Kids complimented the hugely popular Active Kids voucher, which last year saw almost $550,000 claimed by families across the Northern Tablelands.
“For a family with two children, Creative and Active Kids combined will save you $400 a year,” he said.
There are still a large number of providers out there which could be eligible to be part of the Creative Kids program throughout 2019. Mr Marshall is calling on them to register with Service NSW so that parents can claim their vouchers with them.
Creative Kids is one of a raft of NSW Government initiatives helping to ease cost of living pressure for households. Others include cheaper Green Slips and refunds, free car registration for regular toll users and the FuelCheck app.
Further information on how to register as a provider and the program is at www.service.nsw.gov.au/campaign/creative-kids