Childcare services in some of the country’s most disadvantaged communities are at risk of becoming unviable because of a reduction in subsidies to families without employment, a Labour senator has warned.

The new national childcare scheme (NCS), launched last year, gives working parents more than twice the subsidised hours it allows unemployed parents, Marie Sherlock, a Labour Party senator said.

Hundreds of children risk losing access to afterschool care since the NCS introduced an allocation of 20 subsidised hours per week for the children of non-working parents but gave 45 hours a week to those from households with employment.

While the allocations sound generous, hours spent in school are subtracted from the allowance, effectively depriving the school-age children of jobless parents of any subsidy.