Recognised disability medical reviews for Carer Allowance (CA) (child) 009-08040010

Child care receivers with a recognised disability are not generally medically reviewed. However, certain conditions are only considered to be a recognised disability for certain periods of time, as some recognised disabilities can be of a temporary nature. It may be relevant to determine whether the child's medical condition has improved since Carer Allowance (CA) was granted.

In some cases, children who qualified with a recognised disability may have an improvement in their condition and their carer may not have realised they had an obligation to notify Services Australia. For example, children who are granted soon after birth, with the recognised disability of ventilator dependent, are likely to cease to be ventilator dependent as soon as they leave hospital. If the carer fails to tell the agency, this review may be the only opportunity to become aware of this change.

A recognised disability is a condition or disability which is consistently associated with severe levels of disability. There are 2 categories of recognised disabilities:

• recognised disability, and
• recognised medical conditions

Additionally, some disabilities and conditions are treated as recognised disabilities for review purposes only, although they are not considered a recognised disability or a recognised medical condition. In deciding when to treat a disability or condition as a recognised disability for review purposes, a delegate can apply discretion to disabilities and conditions that display a consistently high level of severity but are rare in the community.

Child care receivers with a recognised disability are not generally medically reviewed. However, some conditions are only considered to be a recognised disability for certain periods of time, as the condition can be of a temporary nature.

Carers paid CA for a child care receiver with a recognised disability of Severe Multiple Disabilities - Seizures (SMS) will have a Manual Follow-up (MFU) Care Load review when the child reaches 6 months of age. If the carer is paid Carer Payment (child) and CA (auto) a manual follow up Care Load review is not required.

Contact the customer to determine if the child's condition has improved, if any circumstances have changed, and if they wish to continue to be paid CA (child).

The following forms are required to proceed with the review:

• Review of Carer Allowance - Care Needs Assessment (for a child under 16 years) (SA420)
• Review of Carer Allowance - Medical Report including functional assessment (for a child under 16 years) (SA403)

Once these forms have been issued, an MFU is recorded to check the forms are returned within 21 days.

To process manual reviews for Severe Multiple seizures, see Carer Allowance (CA) (child) Health Care Card (HCC) only reviews.