Eligibility for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for Approved Care Organisations (ACO) 007-07040030

ACOs are eligible for:

• base FTB Part A child rate for each FTB child
• Energy Supplement Part A if they are grandfathered for Energy Supplement Part A

ACOs are not entitled to any other FTB components.

The FTB rate for ACOs is not income tested.

To be eligible for FTB Part A, the ACO must be approved and have the care of an FTB child.

An ACO can be eligible for payment in temporary care situations (including less than 28 days) where the child is legally in their care (court order), such as child has been placed in the care of a Youth Justice Centre. Care must be taken to determine if the temporary change in care is formal (legal/court order) or informal (customer has delegated their care temporarily to an ACO).

The Resources page contains FTB examples of legal responsibility and temporary care provisions.

A child is an FTB child of an ACO if all of the following apply:

• The child is a client of the ACO
• The child is an Australian resident
• The child is aged under 16, or 16-19 and meets education/training requirements and is not receiving a disqualifying payment
• No one else is entitled to FTB for the child. In cases where an individual and ACO share the care of a child and the individual has at least 35% actual care, the ACO has no entitlement to FTB. The individual can receive their entitlement based on their percentage of care

All grants are handled by the ACO Smart Centre Processing.

ACO Smart Centre Processing will collect data on the system for only those ACOs which are both approved and have children in care now or in the last 12 months.

Where an ACO has not received FTB for a period of 12 months, a letter should be sent to advise the ACO their ACO status has been withdrawn. The organisation must reapply and become an Approved Care Organisation prior to any further FTB claims being granted.

The Resources page contains a link to Office Locator.

ACOs must advise if a child or young person is no longer a client of their ACO. This can occur if the child or young person is transferred to another ACO, if they are discharged or have absconded from the ACO. In these cases FTB for the child should be cancelled.