EXCERPTS
More than 40,000 families have racked up debts under the Federal Government's child care benefit scheme and are struggling to pay them off, Labor says.
Figures obtained by Labor from the Government show 43,408 families in 2004 had to repay money to the child care assistance scheme.
The figures also show the number of families saddled with the debts have soared from 990 in 2001.
Opposition family spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said many families could not afford to repay the debts.
She said many families had fallen into debt because the scheme's reporting system was too complicated and inflexible.
"These figures show that this out of touch government continues to insist that while hundreds of thousands of low to middle income families repay Government assistance for child care, tens of thousands simply cannot afford to," she said.
"The system for delivering child care benefit debt is fundamentally flawed."
- reprinted from the Courier-Herald