Processing Family Tax Benefit (FTB) claims from Approved Care Organisations (ACO) 007-07030060

An approved care organisation (ACO) is an organisation which provides or co-ordinates residential care services to young people in Australia and has received approval status from Services Australia.

ACOs may be eligible for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for children in their care once the organisation has received approval status from the delegate, see Eligibility for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for Approved Care Organisations (ACOs).

For an effective FTB claim to be made, an 'ACO is required to complete an ACO admission, transfer or discharge when a young person is admitted, transferred or discharged from your care spreadsheet,' which is then emailed to the ACO processing team for assessment.

FTB is paid at the same rate per child for all ACOs, regardless of the age of the child. ACOs are eligible for base FTB Part A child rate for each FTB child, and in some circumstances may be eligible to receive Energy Supplement Part A, see Table 1 > Step 15 in Energy Supplement for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) recipients.

ACO’s may also be eligible for the Double Orphan Pension (DOP) if they have care of a DOP child and the child is an FTB child.

ACOs receive fortnightly rate letters detailing the children currently in care and the FTB payment paid for the current period

ACO’s cannot be paid:

• FTB Part A supplement
• bereavement payment of FTB
• FTB part B, or
• single income family supplement

If an ACO arranges long term foster care with a carer family, the foster family is eligible for FTB, not the ACO, as the foster carer has legal responsibility for the day to day care, welfare and development of the child. Foster carers working as employees in a group home are not eligible for FTB as the organisation responsible for the group home has responsibility for the care of the child.