Support for grandparent carers

Who a grandparent carer is

Being a grandparent carer is more than helping parents with babysitting or school pick-ups, or providing care due to work, travel or study commitments. You’re a grandparent carer if you provide ongoing care and make the day-to-day decisions for your grandchildren.

Grandparents who are caring for children and live in the same house as a parent are generally not eligible for payments. If you’re in this situation, you can contact us to discuss your circumstances.

A grandparent can be one of the following:

• a biological, adoptive, step or great grandparent of the child
• the current or former partner of a biological, adoptive or relationship grandparent or great grandparent
• a parent or grandparent of a relationship parent of the child.

A relationship parent is a person who is legally responsible for a child born as a result of artificial conception procedures or under surrogacy arrangements.

We don’t consider any of the following to be grandparents for payments and services:

• former partners of step grandparents
• former partners of step great grandparents.

If you’re a non-parent carer, but aren’t a grandparent, you can read about support for non-parent carers.

Payments and services to help grandparent carers

If you’re a grandparent carer, you may be able to get payments.

Family Tax Benefit helps with the costs of raising or caring for children. You may be eligible if you’re the carer of a child, including formal and informal foster children and grandchildren.

Child Care Subsidy helps with the cost of approved child care. You may be eligible if you have at least 14% care of the child and are responsible for paying child care fees for the child.

Additional Child Care Subsidy Grandparent gives grandparents extra assistance with the cost of approved child care. You’ll be able to access 100 hours of subsidised care each fortnight for your grandchild.

Double Orphan Pension helps with the costs of caring for children where any of the following apply:

• their parents have both died
• one parent has died and the other is in a psychiatric institution or nursing home for an indefinite time, in prison for at least 10 years or their whereabouts are unknown
• they’re a refugee and both parents are living outside Australia or their whereabouts are unknown.

Foster Child Health Care Card helps you get cheaper medicines and some discounts for children in your care. You don’t need to be a formal foster carer to be eligible. You could be eligible if you care for a child who is not your or your partner’s biological or adopted child.

Assistance for Isolated Children Scheme helps carers of school aged students if they either:

• live in an isolated area
• can’t go to an appropriate state school daily because they have disability or special health needs.

Grandparent, Foster and Kinship Carer Advisers help non-parent carers who provide ongoing care for children. Our advisers give tailored help if you’re a grandparent carer.

What is needed to make a claim

When you claim a payment, we’ll ask you for certain documents or information. You need to provide these before you can submit your claim. This may include all of the following:

• personal details such as tax file numbers for you and your partner, family income details, residence details and bank account details
• child details including name and date of birth
• proof of the birth or adoption, if not already established with us
• details of the previous carer
• details about the child’s care arrangements.

Find out more about providing evidence of your care.

Medicare services

A Medicare card helps you with some health expenses, such as free doctor visits at health clinics.

Australian Immunisation Register is a national register that records vaccinations.

Child Dental Benefits Schedule provides access to benefits for basic dental services for children.

Medicare Safety Net can help to lower your out of pocket medical costs for out of hospital services.

Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) Safety Net can reduce the cost of prescription medicines once the threshold has been reached.

Child support for non-parent carers

If you care for a child and aren’t the parent, you may get child support from both parents. Find out about applying for child support as a non-parent carer.

Any child support you receive may affect how much Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A you get. Read about child support and your Family Tax Benefit Part A.

Other government and community support services

There’s a range of other organisations that provide support services and useful information you may find helpful. You can use Service Finder to locate assistance in your local area.