Federal child care funding: what you need to know

It may also be important to know the following:
• You don't have to be a parent to get it. The benefit follows the child, so Biesenthal says guardians who live with and are primarily responsible for the upbringing of an eligible child can receive the UCCB.

• Other federal income-tested benefits will not be affected by the UCCB. This means you won't lose your right to the CCTB, Employment Insurance, the GST/HST tax credit or any other federal program because of the income you get from the UCCB.

• Every province and the Yukon have agreed not to claw the UCCB back from social assistance recipients. Biesenthal says only Nunavut and the Northwest Territories have yet to publicly announce their intentions. If you receive social assistance and you live in either of those territories you can contact your territorial government to ask how you'll be affected.

Finally, while the "CC" in UCCB may stand for "Child Care," nobody will monitor how you spend it. While in some families the payments may offset the costs of institutionalized day care, in others they will become a "salary" for a stay-at-home parent or even be used to boost up RESP contributions. "The UCCB is for parents to spend as they see fit," says Biesenthal. "The government trusts parents' ability to make choices they know are right for their children."

For more details on the UCCB, visit the websites of Human Resources and Social Development Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency.

You can learn more about the government's strategy for implementing the UCCB by reading the Budget 2006 document.

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