Family crisis, humanitarian reasons or medical treatment
You may get Youth Allowance if you’re travelling outside Australia for an approved reason. If granted, you’ll get your payment for the time required to deal with the reason. This will generally be 2-3 weeks. The maximum period is 6 weeks.
The approved reasons are:
- to attend an acute family crisis - for example, to visit a family member who’s critically ill
- for specific humanitarian reasons - for example, to adopt a child or attend custody proceedings
- to get eligible medical treatment that isn’t available in Australia.
Evidence we need
You must provide detailed evidence that supports the reason for travel. The evidence you need to provide depends on the circumstances.
Evidence may include any of the following:
- a death certificate for the family member
- a medical certificate from an overseas hospital
- a statement from police
- a court order
- a letter from your treating doctor
- other documents relating to the reason for travel.
If you don’t give us the evidence before you leave Australia, your payment may stop when you depart. If we’ve stopped your payment, we’ll reassess it once we get your evidence.
Example
Maya is paid Youth Allowance. They tell Centrelink they’re travelling to Brazil for 3 weeks as their sister has had a serious stroke and has been hospitalised. Centrelink tell Maya their circumstances may meet the criteria of an acute family crisis, which would mean their Youth Allowance can be paid for a short time overseas.
Maya must provide suitable evidence to confirm the situation before the assessment can be finalised and they can be paid. Maya said they’ll get evidence while in Brazil and upload it when they return to Australia. This means the assessment will happen after Maya returns to Australia, so Maya’s Youth Allowance stops when they depart.
Maya gets a certificate from the hospital in Brazil that states their sister’s name, date of birth and date of admission and details that she’s in a critical condition and may not recover.
After 3 weeks, Maya returns to Australia. They upload their evidence, which confirms the situation is an acute family crisis. They’re paid Youth Allowance for the 3 weeks they were in Brazil.
Alternative situations
If Maya’s sister had died while they were there, they could contact Centrelink and request further payment under the acute family crisis provision. They would need to provide a death certificate, as well as the initial medical certificate.
If Maya decided to stay longer in Brazil to visit family and travel, they wouldn’t be paid for that time as it wasn’t due to the acute family crisis. Maya’s Youth Allowance would suspend at the end of the approved period. If they returned to Australia within 13 weeks of suspension, their payment could be restored. If they returned after 13 weeks, they would need to lodge a new claim.
Defence training
If you’re attending an Australian Defence Force Reserves training camp, you’ll get your payment for the duration of the training.
Evidence we need
You need to give us a written statement from the camp commander or the person in charge. It must show all of the following:
- camp details
- duration of the camp including the start and end dates of the camp
- camp location.
You can upload your evidence using your Centrelink online account through myGov.