Assessing a customer with a disability when the parental home is isolated from required facilities for Youth Allowance (YA) at the away from home rate 010-06040090

Where a dependent YA customer’s parental home is isolated and the customer has a disability they may be eligible for the away from home rate. For example, the customer may need to live away from home to:

• board at a special school or institution for people with disabilities
• access ongoing medical treatment or special facilities which would otherwise involve excessive travelling time, or
• avoid aggravation to the customer's disability or other debilitating effects from lengthy daily travel

The customer will need to provide evidence to support their claim, for example a letter from the special educational provider or treating doctor to verify their individual treatment plan. These cases are discretionary and each case should be assessed on its own merits with consideration given to the customer’s individual circumstances.

Note: an Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) or payment of Youth Disability Supplement (YDS) is not an automatic qualification for the away from home rate of YA. Customers will still need to provide evidence that they are required to live away from home for one of the above reasons to satisfy this away from home criterion.

YDS is paid to full-time students and Australian Apprentices in receipt of YA if the customer is under 22 years of age and has been assessed by an ESAt as having a partial capacity to work of less than 30 hours per week. The fact that a customer is receiving YDS does not automatically qualify them for the away from home rate under this criteria.

MOB is available to persons aged 16 and older who are in the labour market who cannot use public transport without substantial assistance because of their disability. Those in the labour market include workers, voluntary workers, students and job seekers.