Carer Payment provides financial support to people who are unable to work in substantial paid employment because they provide full time daily care to someone with a severe disability, medical condition, is frail or aged.
Carer Allowance is a fortnightly income supplement for parents or carers providing additional daily care and attention to an adult or dependent child with a disability, medical condition, is frail or aged. Carer Allowance is not income and assets tested, is not taxable and can be paid in addition to wages, Carer Payment or any other income support payment.
An Income Support Payment is a pension or benefit, like Youth Allowance, Newstart Allowance or Age Pension, paid by Services Australia or the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Income Support Payments do not include family assistance payments such as Family Tax Benefit Part A, Family Tax Benefit Part B, Child Care Benefit or Child Care Rebate.
Income Support Payment may include the following:
Social Security Benefits:
Social Security Pensions:
Centrelink Reference number format is 9 digit and 1 letter.
DVA file numbers are in the following alpha numeric format.
You have a legal responsibility, alone or together with another person, for the day-to day care, welfare and development while care receiver is in your care OR
Care receiver is not a dependent child of someone else under the previous point AND care receiver is wholly or substantially in your care
Care and attention refers to the requirement that you provide some additional care and attention to care receiver because of their disabilities and/or medical condition/s.
Personal care refers specifically to the help you provide with the basic activities of daily living. These activities may relate to the bodily functions or to sustaining the life of the person you care for. This includes supervising and/or prompting them to undertake these activities.
Personal care includes activities such as:
Personal care does not include activities such as:
The care may be active, supervisory or monitoring. To provide care on a daily basis for a significant time, a carer should reasonably be expected to provide at least the equivalent of a normal working day in personal care (a normal working day does not limit the hours from 9am to 5pm).
Personal care refers specifically to the help you provide with the basic activities of daily living. These activities may relate to the bodily functions or to sustaining the life of the person for whom you care for. This includes supervising and/or prompting them to undertake these activities.
Personal care includes activities such as:
Personal care does not include activities such as:
You may qualify for Carer Payment if:
For example: Betty and Bill are separated and have a parenting plan for their 2 children who each have a severe disability or severe medical condition. The plan shows that Betty cares for daughter Cathy 70% of the time and son James 30% of the time. While Betty is caring for Cathy, Bill is caring for James and while Betty is caring for James, Bill is caring for Cathy. At all times, both Betty and Bill have a child in their care, so they are eligible for Carer Payment (child).
Temporary Care:
e.g. spends night(s) with an organisation, or with another person not living with you or in respite care
Shared Care:
e.g. You share the care of the care receiver with another person (other than your current partner who lives with you)
Education, training or treatment other than hospital:
E.g. spends one or more 24 hour periods from midnight to midnight at a training centre, hostel, boarding school or therapy centre.
e.g. spends night(s) with an organisation, with another person not living with you or in respite care
e.g. You share the care of the care receiver with another person (other than your current partner who lives with you)
E.g. spends one or more 24 hour periods from midnight to midnight at a training centre, hostel, boarding school or therapy centre.
You are involved in the personal care of care receiver, or involved in the person's rehabilitation and you visit on a daily basis
You are involved in the personal care of care receiver, or involved in the person's rehabilitation and you visit on a daily basis
The country where the care receiver was born.
The country of citizenship of the care receiver.
If the person you care for is a citizen of more than one country and one of those countries is Australia, you should record Australia in this field. If the person you care for is a citizen of more than one country not including Australia but including New Zealand, you should record the country of the passport the person you care for used to enter Australia in this field.
If you select Australia as the country of citizenship of the person you care for, you may need to provide documentary evidence of this.
Australian citizen
People usually acquire Australian citizenship if they are born in Australia or born outside Australia and elect to become Australian citizens because they are permanent residents. If a person is born or adopted outside Australia to Australian parents they can be Australian citizens if their parents register the child as an Australian citizen 'by descent' at an Embassy.
The date the person you care for acquired Australian Citizenship depends on the way in which they gained Australian Citizenship.
The main ways of becoming an Australian citizen are by birth, by grant (formerly called naturalisation), by descent, or by being adopted by an Australian citizen.
Descent
A person born outside Australia who is the natural child of an Australian citizen may acquire citizenship by descent.
Enter the date that the person you care for was registered with either the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) or Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP), for example, 12/10/1998.
Grant (formally called naturalisation)
Enter the date the person you care for was presented with their Australian citizenship documentation, for example, 12/10/1983.
Adoption
Enter either the date that the Department of Immigration and Border Protection advised that Australian citizenship was granted to the person you care for, or the date an Australian passport was issued to them, for example, 12/10/2010.
If you do not have proof of this person's Australian citizenship we may be able to assist you to verify this.
Permanently means the person you care for normally lives in Australia on a long-term basis. Holidays or short trips outside Australia would not affect this.
If the person you care for 'resides' in Australia, they are living in Australia permanently.
Living in Australia means that the person's usual home is in Australia. When we are deciding whether a person is living in Australia we will look at:
Enter the date that your care receiver most recently commenced legally residing in Australia on a permanent basis, for example, 10/04/1999.
If your care receiver has returned to Australia after residing in another country, enter the date that they most recently started living in Australia on a permanent basis.
You may be able to obtain this date from the travel documents of the person you care for. If these are no longer available, you can estimate the day, month and year they most recently started living in Australia.
A person is considered to be residing in Australia during a temporary absence. Do not enter the date the person returned to Australia after a holiday or short trip.
Norfolk Island - If the person you care for was living on Norfolk Island on 1 July 2016 and they are still living there, select 1 July 2016.
The answer to this question may enable us to access electronic records held by Australia's immigration department and help us to verify care receivers Australian residence.
Enter the person's passport/travel document number in this field. This is the number that identifies their passport/travel document.
Enter the passport/travel document number without spaces using alphanumeric characters. If the passport/travel document number includes dashes or other special characters do not enter these characters.
Example:
If the passport/travel document number is A123-4567, then enter A1234567
This number can be from an expired passport or travel document.
For Australian passports, passport number has to be one of D, E, F, K, L, J, M, N, PA, PB, X (upper or lower case) followed by 7 digits
For Document of Identity the number is A or a followed by 7 digits
Select the country that issued their passport.
The country of issue for a passport is always the country that is issuing the passport, not necessarily the country in which the passport is physically issued. For example, a Chinese passport issued from the Chinese embassy in France is considered to be issued by China.
If the country that issued the passport is not listed in the drop down box, please select 'unspecified'.
Permanent visa
A permanent visa gives the holder permission to remain in Australia indefinitely.
If the person you care for arrived on a New Zealand passport and has not since formally applied for and been granted a permanent visa, select the New Zealand passport option. If they have been granted a permanent visa but they are unable to obtain or provide evidence, you or they should contact us as soon as possible.
Temporary visa
Temporary or Provisional visas are temporary visas that may lead to the grant of a permanent visa if the person meets certain conditions. Temporary visas have a time limit on the period of stay in Australia.
New Zealand passport (Special Category Visa)
Since 1/9/94 New Zealand passport holders are generally issued a 'Special Category Visa' (SCV) on arrival in Australia. There is no formal application process for this visa; an application is taken to have been made when going through immigration clearance. An SCV allows a person to stay in Australia indefinitely, however it is NOT a permanent resident visa.
Do not select this option if the person you care for arrived on a New Zealand passport and has since applied for and been granted a permanent visa.
Unsure
Select this option if you are unsure what type of visa the person you care for currently has. For example you may not know if they arrived in Australia on their parent's passport.
Enter the date that the person you care for was granted their current visa, for example, 10/04/1999.
Enter the person's visa subclass code which relates to their current type of visa. This is a three digit number. You may be able to obtain this from the person's passport, for example, 010.
If you are receiving relevant minimum wages or above for providing this care you will not be eligible for Carer Allowance.
If you require further information, call us on 132 717.
Communication refers to helping the person you care for to communicate their needs to you and other people or organisations, or helping them to interpret or understand information, because of their disability or medical condition.
Assistance with eating and drinking refers to helping the person you care for to eat their meals and/or drink.
Mobility refers to supervising, prompting or helping the person you care for to be able to move about.
Personal hygiene refers to helping the person you care for to maintain their personal care and hygiene.
Safety and behaviour refers to supervising the person you care for to ensure their safety, the safety of others, and/or to prevent inappropriate behaviour.
Treatment refers to helping the person you care for to take medication, participate in therapy, or have treatment.
