Child enters customer's care/custody 102-05050010

A principal carer is a person with the primary care of a dependent child under the age of 16 years. A step-parent may qualify as a principal carer if they live as a member of a couple with the parent of the child.

A person is generally the principal carer if they have the greater degree of responsibility for the child's day-to-day care, welfare and development.

To qualify for Parenting Payment, the customer must be the principal carer of at least one child in their care. Single customers must be the principal carer of a child under 14 and partnered customers must be the principal carer of a child under 6.

Single JobSeeker Payment (JSP), Youth Allowance (YA) (job seeker) and Special Benefit (SpB) customers who are principal carer may qualify for a higher rate of payment and/or income test, additional concessions, and reduced mutual obligation requirements.

A 'with child' rate may also be paid to:

• partnered Youth Allowance (YA) and Austudy customers
• single customers who are not principal carers of a dependent child in certain situations (they are caring for a young person aged 16-17, or share the care of a child under 16)

SSC screen/shared care table, ‘shared care percentage’ and ‘principal carer indicator’ is used for all income support payments when determining principal carer status. The following rules apply to the PC indicator on the SSC screen/shared care table to facilitate correct coding:

• Care percentage 55% and above must be coded with Y
• Care percentage 45% and below must be coded with N
• Care percentage 46% to 54% (equal care) can be coded with Y or N

Note: for equal care, staff must ensure a principal carer assessment has been completed and the PC indicator updated correctly.

For single JSP, YA (job seeker) and SpB customers, coding of the principal carer determination on the SSC screen/shared care table will automatically update the customers principal carer status on the PCCD screen. Note: CHOC screen override codes, PCN and PCY may be used in very limited circumstances, for example where there are more than 2 carers. See Child Override/Claim (CHOC) screen.

An allowance customer may wish to be assessed as a principal carer due to a change in circumstances other than a change of care. For example, income or mutual obligation requirements.

The customer and their partner may agree to swap so that the customer is assessed as the principal carer of children already in their care, rather than their partner. For partnered customers where the child is a dependent child of both customers, it is not necessary to confirm that a change of care has happened, unless an additional child has entered care.

Single income support customers may also become eligible as a principal carer due to an increase in their level of shared care of a child. The care arrangement must be confirmed with the other person caring for the child.

A partnered customer with dependent children cannot avoid the application of a non-payment or rate reduction period for JobSeeker Payment (JSP), YA or Austudy by claiming PP Partnered as an alternative payment.

Customers can register a newborn child for Medicare, and make a combined claim for:

• Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
• PPL, and
• Child Care Subsidy (CCS)

Current FTB customers who wish to add an older child for FTB can verbally give details of the child entering care.

Customers with a Regular Care Child are also able to claim and test their eligibility for ancillary benefits.

An additional child can increase the rate of FTB and Rent Assistance (RA) payable to the family.

Staff must try to confirm the change of care with the previous carer to make sure:

• payments are made to the right person
• each customer receives their correct entitlement, and
• reviews are reduced

Note: there are exceptions to the requirement to confirm a change of care.

If the previous carer has not notified the change of care, or if there is a disagreement over care arrangements, the customer must provide evidence to support the actual care arrangements.

It is important that claims are processed quickly to reduce the chance of an overpayment for the previous carer and to ensure that the customer claiming is not disadvantaged.

If a change of care is:

• temporary, the current customer may remain entitled to both income support and FTB payments for the child and may remain the principal carer of the child during the absence
• part of a pattern of care (care of the child is shared between two or more people over a certain period), a shared care assessment may be needed. The customer may wish to claim a shared care income support payment. FTB can also be claimed or reassessed at a shared care rate
• disputed, a customer may continue to receive FTB for the child for a period of between 4 and 52 weeks, and may remain the principal carer for up to 8 weeks for income support payments if the child has left their care without their consent or if it is disputed care. In certain cases these periods may be extended. For FTB, discretion may be applied to disputed care and left care without consent cases to determine that the percentage of care be immediately based on the actual level of care if there are special circumstances which support that outcome. This decision would result in the losing carer's eligibility for FTB ceasing for the child. The person who has actual care of the child may be eligible for FTB for the child if they meet the normal eligibility criteria

Details of your child's care arrangements (FA012)

If the grandparent, informal foster or non-parent carer is providing a co-signed FA012 or they advised verbally of the change in care, evidence must be provided before a claim can be assessed. The Service Officer needs to be satisfied the evidence provided is sufficient to make a determination before granting FTB. See the Resources page for examples.

Mutual customers

A mutual customer of Centrelink and Child Support can notify either program of changes to their care arrangements. The program receiving the information will make the care determination and the care information will be transferred to the other program for the assessment of family assistance and child support entitlements. When this occurs a reassessment of the customer's entitlement to income support payments may be required.

If care of a child is delegated to another person, this is not considered a change of care.

A child may be in the care of another person but the customer retains the overall responsibility for the child, for example the child attends boarding school or stays with grandparents.

It is reasonable to provide additional assistance when:

• a family is deemed unable or unsuitable to complete an online claim
• helping eligible remote Indigenous customers
• helping customers in crisis or financial hardship

Service Officers and the Smart Centres Families and Child Care (FCC) Processing team, work in partnership to provide a suitable outcome. If a claim is needed, consider a verbal one if appropriate.

For verbal claims:

• The customer must agree to the privacy agreement before starting the claim
• The Assisted Customer Claim (ACC) can only be submitted if the customer meets the claim signature requirements by either:
• accepting the Verbal Signature Declaration, or
• returning a signed Families Declaration Form (FDF)
• If the Verbal Signature Declaration has not been accepted, the workflow will generate a Families Declaration Form (FDF) for the customer to sign and return
• The activity can be referred to Families Processing for priority processing. See Progress of claim - Families claims

• Before they can submit their claim, customers advising of a child entering care, or a change to an existing care arrangement need to provide a completed 'Details of your child’s care arrangement (FA012)'
• Customers can also advise of a change of care in a claim for an income support payment
• Where the claim is allocated for processing in Customer First, there is no change to the existing protocols for referral and assessment
• Where the claim is allocated for processing in Process Direct, an Assessment of Care Arrangements Referral work item (ZCRF_AOCA_REFERRAL) will be generated and the assessment must be completed before the claim can be finalised
• The Assessment of Care Arrangements work item will be allocated to a suitably skilled Families Service Officer to complete the care assessment in Customer First
• After the care assessment has been completed, income support payment, Low Income Health Care Card (LIC), Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) and Foster Child Health Care Card (FST) processing staff will assess and finalise the claim

If a grandparent, other relative non-parent carer contacts to advise they have gained care of a child, further information must be requested if the following conditions are met:

• the losing carer is the parent of the child, and
• there are no Court Orders or Child Protection orders in place for the care of the child

For further information to help make a change of care decision:

• for grandparents, see Eligibility for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for grandparent carers and Principal carer of a dependent child
• for non-parent carers (not grandparents) and foster carers, see Eligibility for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for a child in foster care and Principal carer of a dependent child