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The government's new childcare subsidy system has become the latest technology debacle, with both families and childcare providers struggling to access the system. The Centrelink website was down for maintenance over the weekend, as the new childcare subsidy regime came into effect on July 1. On Monday Centrelink tweeted their website and app were experiencing issues for all users, but would not confirm if this was because of a rush of new registrations. On Thursday childcare providers were told to try to access the portal through the Department of Education and Training website "in a couple of hours", as it was down. The warning was removed later in the day. The new childcare subsidy regime began on July 1, after weeks of urging from government ministers for families to register for the new system before it launched. Families wanting to claim the childcare subsidy, which is paid directly to providers, must apply through Centrelink through the myGov portal. Providers who want to be paid the subsidy must use the "provider entry point," which is administered by the Department of Human Services. Education Minister Simon Birmingham said on Monday around 51,000 families who had been active in the childcare system since April 1 had not switched over to the new system. There's a three month window for families to register for the new system and be eligible for backpay for childcare services provided before the registration is finalised. The issues come just weeks after the Department of Human Services was slammed in a recent Labor-led inquiry into digital government projects, which found that the consequences of the botched replacement of the child support payment system Cuba were "serious". "A substantial sum of taxpayer funds have been sunk into a project that has been suspended indefinitely," the report said of the Child Support Agency's program. Department of Human Services General Manager Hank Jongen denied there had been issues with providers accessing the website. "The Provider Entry Point has been available and fully operational since the legislated start date of 2 July," he said. Mr Jongen also said the maintenance at the start of the financial year on the website was routine. "Maintenance on the Department’s website has always occurred on the weekend prior to a new financial year. This allows the Department to update their systems with any changes coming into effect from 1 July," he said.

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