Family crisis 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
- 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 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
Billy is paid Youth Allowance. They tell Centrelink they’re travelling to Finland as their brother has been in a serious car accident and is in hospital in a coma. Centrelink tell Billy 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.
Billy will need to give evidence confirming the situation before the assessment can be finalised and they can be paid. Billy said they will get this evidence while in Finland and upload it when they return to Australia. This means the assessment will happen after Billy returns to Australia, so Billy’s Youth Allowance stops when they depart.
While in Finland, Billy gets a certificate from the hospital that states their brother’s name, date of birth and date of admission and details the critical condition he’s in. After 2 weeks, Billy’s brother’s situation improves and Billy returns to Australia. Billy uploads their evidence, which confirms the situation is an acute family crisis. They’re paid Youth Allowance for the 2 weeks they were in Finland.
Alternative situations
If Billy’s brother 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 Billy decided to stay longer in Finland to visit family and travel, they wouldn’t be paid for that time as it wasn’t due to the acute family crisis. Billy’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.
Approved study or work
If you’re doing approved study or work outside Australia, you may get your payment for the duration of the activity. But all of these must apply:
- you’re getting Youth Allowance as a student or Australian Apprentice
- you’ve already started your approved course or work activity in Australia
- you submitted your Youth Allowance claim before you left Australia.
Evidence we need
We need evidence that your overseas work or study counts towards your Australian course. If you don’t give us the evidence before you leave Australia, your payment will stop when you depart.
If we’ve stopped your payment, we’ll reassess it if we get your supporting documents within 13 weeks.
If you’re travelling for an approved reason you will need to meet specific criteria for payment. We will assess your payment when you give us evidence. If eligible, we’ll restore your payment and pay you any missing payments.
Students
If you’re a student studying outside Australia, you need to give us a written statement from your Australian education institution. It must be on their official letterhead and include all of the following:
- your name, date of birth and student ID number
- the course name and code you’re enrolled in at your Australian institution
- that you’ll stay enrolled with your Australian institution
- your study load at your Australian institution while you’re overseas
- the name of the overseas education institution
- start and end dates for your overseas study - don’t include overseas vacation periods after you complete your study
- that your overseas study counts towards your Australian course.
Australian Apprentices
If you’re an Australian Apprentice working or training outside Australia, you need to give us a written statement. This can be from either your:
- employer
- State Training Authority.
The statement must be on their official letterhead and confirm all of these:
- you’re working or studying outside Australia
- your overseas work or study counts towards your apprenticeship
- your Commonwealth Registration Number will remain current.
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.