Carers | Centrelink Online

Carers | Centrelink Online

Carers

Carer Payment provides financial support to people who provide constant care to an adult or child with a disability or medical condition, or an adult who is frail aged, and because of the demands of their caring role, are unable to support themselves through substantial paid employment.

Read about eligibility for Carer Payment

For Carer Payment you must:

• Personally provide constant care in the home of an adult or child with a disability or medical condition or an adult who is frail aged; and
• Personally provide care for a significant period, usually a minimum of 6 months; and
• Satisfy an income and assets test

Carer Allowance is an income supplement for people who provide additional daily care and attention for an adult or child with a disability or medical condition, or an adult who is frail aged. Carer Allowance can be paid in addition to wages, or another income support payment.

Read about eligibility for Carer Allowance

For Carer Allowance you must:

• Provide additional daily care in your home or the home of a person aged 16 years or over who has a disability, medical condition, or who is frail aged; or
• Provide additional daily care for a dependent child aged under 16 years, with a disability; or medical condition, who lives with you; or
• Provide additional daily care for 2 dependent children with disabilities or medical conditions, who do not individually qualify for Carer allowance, but together have substantial caring responsibility and live with you

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Who can get it

To get Carer Payment, both you and the person you provide care for need to be eligible.

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• Care needs
• Department of Veterans’ Affairs payments

To get this payment you and the person you care for need to meet some rules. You need to both:

• be Australian residents
• meet an income and assets test.

Care needs

You may be able to get this payment if you:

• provide constant care to someone who needs care for at least 6 months
• are caring for someone at the end of their life.

Constant care means you provide care for a large amount of time daily. This is roughly equal to a normal working day and stops you from working full time.

The care can include:

• physical help, such as needing to be lifted or help to get dressed
• guidance, such as support shopping and taking the right medication
• supervision, to support independence and safety.

You may still get Carer Payment if you do paid work or are self-employed for up to 100 hours in a 4 week period. Read more about working while you get Carer Payment.

You can care for one or more people, in their home. If you care for more than one person, read about caring for multiple people.

You may still get Carer Payment if you take time away from caring. Read more about how to keep your payment when taking time away from caring.

When you claim, we’ll ask you about the person you care for and the care they need. Read more about the rules for the person you care for.

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Residence rules

To be eligible for Carer Payment you must meet the residence rules.

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• When you need to wait
• How else you may meet the rules

On the day you claim you must be all of the following:

• living in Australia
• physically in Australia
• an Australian resident.

The person you are caring for must be:

• living in Australia
• an Australian resident.

There are exceptions if you are claiming under a Social Security Agreement.

To keep getting your payment, you both must be living in Australia as Australian residents.

When you need to wait

If you've recently arrived as a resident in Australia, you may have to wait 2 or 4 years to get this payment. There are some exemptions to this. Read more about the newly arrived resident’s waiting period.

How else you may meet the rules

If you’ve lived or worked in an agreement country you may be able to get Carer Pension. Read about which countries have agreements with us.

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Rules for the person you care for

The person you care for must meet rules for you to get Carer Payment.

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• Children with short term or episodic conditions
• People with 2 or more carers

As part of your claim we’ll ask for information about the person you care for.

The person you care for must meet all of the following:

• have a disability or medical condition likely to last at least 6 months, or have a terminal illness
• need constant care in their home.

Constant care means you provide care for a large amount of time daily. This roughly equates to a normal working day. This care stops you from working full time.

Not every person with disability or medical condition needs constant care. As part of your claim we’ll ask you to detail the type of care that is needed. It can include things like:

• physical help, such as needing to be lifted or help to get dressed
• guidance, such as support shopping and taking the right medication
• supervision, to support independence and safety.

We assess care needs for adults differently than we do for children under 16. The questions we ask you during the claim help us to determine if you're eligible.

The treating doctor of the person you care for will need to complete a medical form. As part of your claim, you’ll also need to tell us about the care you provide. In some cases we may be able to use existing medical information we have. We use this information you give us to help us understand the care needs of the person you care for. When you start your claim, we’ll tell you if we need an updated medical form.

You may still be able to get Carer Payment if you’re caring for multiple people who have a lower care need.

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Income and assets test

Your rate of Carer Payment depends on what you get paid in income and own in assets. The person you provide care for also has to have income and assets under certain limits.

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• Income test for carers
• Assets test for carers
• Income and assets limits for the person you provide care for

If you already get an income support payment from us like JobSeeker or Parenting Payment, this payment will stop once your Carer Payment claim is granted.

Income test for carers

You can earn some income and still get Carer Payment. The amount of Carer Payment you get depends on how much income you and your partner get paid.

Read more about the income test for Carer Payment.

Assets test for carers

You can have some assets and still get Carer Payment. The amount of Carer Payment you’ll get depends on how much your and your partner’s assets are worth.

Read more about the assets test for Carer Payment.

Income and assets limits for the person you provide care for

The person you care for must meet income and assets test limits. If they don’t get an income support payment from us or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, their:

• income must be less than $143,752 a year before tax
• assets must be worth less than $886,750.

This amount may change on 1 January each year due to indexation.

This income and assets test also includes the income and assets of their partner and dependent children. The care receiver assets test:

• doesn’t include their principal home and first 2 hectares surrounding it
• may allow you to get Carer Payment if the person getting care has assets over $886,750.

Income test

Your income can reduce how much we pay you. We use the pension income test to assess Carer Payment.

Assets test

The assets test helps us work out if you can get paid Carer Payment. It also affects how much you'll get.

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Yesterday, I went to the Centrelink office and submitted the form, and I am strating to get the payment today! A new question: I was wondering whether something called "carer payment" applies to someone in my position.

And that is excellent news about the Age Pension restarting so quickly—one day after lodging the fresh claim.

On your new question: <yes, the carer system is very relevant to your situation>, but the payment I would investigate first is probably <Carer Allowance>, rather than replacing your Age Pension with <Carer Payment>.

Your uploaded Centrelink information distinguishes them clearly. Carer Payment is for someone providing <constant care>, roughly equivalent to a normal working day, where caring prevents substantial/full-time employment. Carer Allowance is a supplementary payment for someone providing <additional daily care>. Services Australia currently makes the same distinction.

The crucial point for you

Because you are already Age Pension age, you <cannot receive both Age Pension and Carer Payment>. If you qualify for Carer Payment, you have to choose:

<Age Pension OR Carer Payment>

Services Australia explicitly says this. Both are pension income-support payments and use pension income/assets tests.

By contrast:

<Age Pension + Carer Allowance = possible.>

Services Australia specifically tells Age Pension recipients that they may also qualify for Carer Allowance. The current rate is <$162.60 per fortnight>.

That makes <Carer Allowance> particularly interesting for you.

Would caring for Chungsoon potentially qualify?

Quite possibly. The test isn't simply whether Chungsoon has a diagnosis. Centrelink assesses <how much additional daily care she actually requires>.

Their examples include not only physical assistance but also:

• guidance with shopping and taking medication;
• supervision to maintain independence and safety;
• other daily assistance resulting from the medical condition.

That is important because caring for someone with cognitive impairment does not have to mean lifting, bathing or feeding them. <Supervision, prompting, medication management and safety monitoring can count as care.> Services Australia also says the treating doctor may need to provide medical information about the care receiver.

From what you have described to me over time about the care you provide Chungsoon, I think it is <definitely worth asking Centrelink to assess your eligibility for Carer Allowance>. I would not assume approval, because Centrelink uses its own care-needs assessment, but this isn't a far-fetched application.

Carer Payment versus Carer Allowance for you

There is another reason I wouldn't rush to switch from Age Pension to Carer Payment. Your Age Pension has just been reinstated and, because of UniSuper, BT Panorama and your foreign pensions, your Centrelink pension is relatively small. Carer Payment is also subject to the pension income and assets tests, so switching does not necessarily escape that means testing.

Carer Payment does have an additional benefit: if you're receiving it on 1 July, the annual <Carer Supplement is $600>. But someone receiving Age Pension plus Carer Allowance can also receive the annual Carer Supplement associated with the Carer Allowance.

So the arrangement I would investigate first is:

<Your Age Pension + Carer Allowance for caring for Chungsoon>

while

<Chungsoon continues receiving her own Age Pension>.

That seems much more relevant than abandoning the Age Pension you have just successfully restored.

Services Australia — Carer Allowance

Since you were just at Centrelink yesterday, you don't necessarily need another office visit immediately. Carer Allowance can be claimed through Centrelink online. But given how useful yesterday's face-to-face experience was, calling the Disability and Carers line on <132 717> and describing Chungsoon's daily care needs would also be a sensible first step. 

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