Support, guidance & advice for todays primary carers
Carer Payments Explained
Article by
Paul Koury
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Carer Payment
Is a payment you can receive if you give constant care to someone who has a severe disability, illness or an adult who is frail aged.
Who can get it
Both the carer and the person they are providing care for need to be eligible.
How much can I get
There are different rates of Carer Payments for single and partnered people.
Carer Payment maximum rate for a single person is $967.50 per fortnight or $729.30 for a member of a couple.
| Pension rates per fortnight | Single | Couple each | Couple combined | Couple separated due to ill health |
| Energy Supplement | $14.10 | $10.60 | $21.20 | $14.10 |
| Maximum basic rate | $936.80 | $706.20 | $1,412.40 | $936.80 |
| Maximum Pension Supplement | $75.60 | $57.00 | $114.00 | $75.60 |
| TOTAL | $1026.50 | $773.80 | $1,547.60 | $1026.50 |
Carer Allowance
The Carer Allowance is a fortnightly payment to carers of someone with a severe disability or illness or who is frail aged to assist with the additional costs of caring on top of their usual costs of daily living.
How can I get the Carer Allowance
There is no assets test for Carer Allowance but there is an income test.
To get Carer Allowance your and your partner’s combined adjusted taxable income must be under $250,000 a year.
How much is the Carer Allowance
Carer Allowance is $144.80 each fortnight. There is no Health Care Card for the person you provide care for.
Carer Supplement
Paid annually if you care for a person with a disability or medical condition or who is frail aged. Carer supplement is up to $600 each year for each eligible payment.
You’ll get this amount on top of your regular payment.
Back Payments
Does Centrelink back pay the carer payment?
Carer Allowance claimants will no longer be able to have their payment backdated up to 12 weeks prior to contacting Centrelink about the payment.
For further information including how to apply, please visit:
servicesaustralia.gov.au/how-to-claim
Comments
Is there a time frame (period of time) that a Carer can claim a Carer Pension. What if the caree is a patient in hospital for a lengthy time? Or they have entered an aged care facility. Does the individual receiving the carer pension get assessed?? How freque
If it took 13 weeks to process my carers payment, am i entitled to at least 12 weeks back dated payments from the day I lodged the claim?
I have the same question as above
Hi, can anyone advise me in regards to a back payment from my employer, I should have been paid between 2014 through to Dec 2020 before I claimed anything from Centerlink? I am getting both allowance and payment and have just declared the amount to them and want to know should I loose or have my payments reduced because this amount should have been paid years ago.
I applied for carer allowance on September 2023 and I’m still waiting for an answer!
I’ve been calling the center link carer hotline unsuccessfully!!!
What should I do!!
Hi Essan, so sorry to hear this. Try getting in touch with Carer Gateway on 1800 422 737 who might be able to help.
Your article helped me a lot, is there any more related content? Thanks!
We are Forster parents and were told 3 years ago we couldn’t get carers allowance were now.told we can basically struggled were this extra income would have helped is this circumstance applicable to over ride the 12 back payment ill advised and pushed aside basically we used all our savings borrowed just to continue keeping these kids out of the system and were told to deal with it so far