The new CCS replaced both the Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate at the start of July last year and families now have to complete an online means test and an activity test.

This means parents will have to be working, volunteering, studying or looking for work to be eligible.

Romola Trevaskis, centre manager at Possums Playground Occasional Child Care Centre, said many parents do not understand the new system.

"There is a lack of understanding of the new system and understanding the ways it can help more families," she said.

"I think in the interim there is a decline with less vulnerable families accessing these services, but hopefully through more education around how families can increase their rebates or help themselves, we will see an increase."

Ms Trevaskis said the new system is good for one half of the population, but also likely inhibits others.

"The new system relies on activity, either people studying, looking for work or volunteering to get hours of rebate, whereas before they had access to just two days a week," she said.

"Now these families are expected to have some level of activity to access three days a fortnight.

"This has probably seen a reduction in that way as those families aren't seeking to do that activity, but alternatively if they're seeking to improve themselves they can access the subsidy."

Ms Trevaskis said since the new system was implemented, she has worked with families so they can become eligible for the CCS.

"I've had to try and help families access the new system or encourage them to access activity to help them get the rebate," she said.

"The families only have to be contributing to the community in some way in order to access the subsidy.

"I'm happy that they've included volunteering as well as extra additional child care subsidies to help families in need."

The centre manager said the full effects of the new system have not been implemented, therefore they haven't fully understood the change.

A representative from the Wiradjuri Aboriginal Community Child Care Centre, who wished to remain anonymous, said the centre has witnessed a drop in enrolments.

"We've seen a decrease from three to five-year-old's and now we have a number of vacancies in this age bracket," she said.

"I pretty much had to teach myself how to use the new system and we help a number of families with their CCS applications as a lot don't know about it.

"I've found that the CCS has dropped our numbers and it's frustrating because you want to support these families, but now there are these obstacles."

The representative said the child care has become mainstream and while there are a lot of Indigenous children, the centre also caters to a number of non-Indigenous children.

"We're seeing the drop in vacancies because many people don't understand and it's become harder and confusing," she said.

"I'm still learning the new system."

Similarly, Goodstart Wagga area manager Kristin Neason said there had been a decrease in the number of "really vulnerable" families in the area accessing early learning.

"These are the families who were neither working nor studying and were not meeting the activity tests for the childcare subsidy", Ms Neason said.

"This means they could no longer afford to send their children to an early learning centre.

"When a child turns four years old, they get access to eligible hours but before then they are not eligible for anything and these are the families who need the support the most."

Goodstart Early Learning advocacy manager John Cherry said there had been a reduction in the number of vulnerable families claiming subsidies for the cost of care.

"The drop in children accessing the safety net has been seen across the board," Mr Cherry said.

"This is because of a combination of changes in criteria making it tougher to access early learning and the problems many families were having navigating Centrelink.

"We have been working closely with all of our centres in Wagga and across the country to make sure that families facing vulnerability are able to access early learning and care but it should not be this difficult."

However, Wagga City Council's Family Day Care manager, Kym Stewart said there has been no change in numbers at the centre.

"Wagga Regional Family Day Care has remained at capacity and anecdotally the changes to the childcare subsidy have not been cited as a reason for families leaving or joining the service," Ms Stewart said.

"Any families looking for childcare are encouraged to please contact the Wagga Regional Family Day Care coordination unit, who will add them to the placement register and work to find them suitable childcare within councils network of educators when spaces become available."

Read more: