Change of care for Carer Allowance (CA) for 2 dependent children with disabilities 009-03050020

When a carer qualifies for CA because of the combined assessment of 2 children under the Disability Care Load Assessment Determination (DCLAD), the assessment of the change will depend on the new care arrangements.

The possible new arrangements are:

• both children change care, and are now cared for by the same new carer
• only one of the children changes care
• both children change care, but go to separate parent or carers

When a carer stops providing care for a care receiver, CA should be cancelled.

If there is an existing link between the carer and the care receiver, whether current or non-current, it may be possible to re-use the care receiver's medical data under the re-use provisions.

If the carer and care receiver have a link, the Carers online claim and Assisted Customer Claim (ACC) will determine if the medical data can be re-used.

If there is no link between the care and the care receiver, the Carers online claim and ACC cannot establish if medical data can be re-used for the care receiver (due to system limitations). The Carers online claim and ACC will request the medical information in all these scenarios.

A new medical report will be required if either:

• the claim is made within 6 months of the next scheduled review of entitlement, or
• there is reason to believe the medical condition of either of the care receivers has changed

In this case, neither carer will immediately qualify for CA because the care receivers are not currently assessed as attracting CA in their own right. Each of the carers will have to test eligibility for each child by either:

• claiming Carer Payment (CP) (child) under the appropriate provisions (CA (auto) will be automatically paid if the CP (child) claim is granted)
• having each care receiver in their care reassessed under the DCLAD to see if they now qualify as a disabled child in their own right, or
• having CA payments cease for the current carer and each carer being tested for eligibility to Health Care Card only (HCC only) CA

A copy of the Medical Report - Carer Allowance for a child under 16 years (SA333TDR/SA426) can be transferred to the file of the new carer. However, to ensure privacy principles are complied with, care should be taken to delete any references to personal information about the previous carer. Details of the information transferred should be noted on the record of both the new carer and the care receiver. The new carer will need to complete the questions in the Care Needs Assessment (for a child under 16 years) contained within the online claim or ACC.

If there is a dispute between two carers over the care being provided see Change of care for Carer Payment (CP) and Carer Allowance (CA) customers