Best Resource for Informal Kinship Carers Without a Court Order in Tasmania

If you are raising a relative's child in Tasmania without a court order, the best resource for your situation is a Tasmania-specific kinship care guide that focuses on informal care arrangements — not a foster care binder, not a generic legal template, and not a court preparation kit. Here is why: most kinship care resources assume you have a formal care order or a caseworker. You do not, and that changes everything about which payments you can claim, how you prove your care to Centrelink, and what evidence schools and doctors will accept.

The Support for Grandparents and Kinship Carers in Tasmania guide was built specifically for informal carers. If you are not sure it is what you need, read on for how it compares with the alternatives.

Why "No Court Order" Changes Everything

In Tasmania, the type of care arrangement you have determines which payments and support services are available to you:

• Formal care (child was subject to a Care and Protection Order under the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1997): you may be eligible for DECYP carer allowances, case management support and Extended Carer Payments for young adults aged 18 to 21
• Informal care (family arrangement without DECYP involvement): you are ineligible for state carer allowances entirely — your support comes through federal Centrelink payments (FTB, ACCS Grandparent, Carer Allowance, Double Orphan Pension) and you must prove your care through secondary evidence rather than a court order

The majority of kinship carers in Tasmania — grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings and family friends caring for over 1,200 children outside the formal system — are in informal arrangements. Yet the search results for "kinship care Tasmania" mostly point to formal care resources, DECYP out-of-home care pages and foster carer allowance schedules that do not apply to informal carers.

Comparing Your Options

Who This Is For

• Grandparents who took in a grandchild after a parent's addiction, imprisonment, illness or death — without going through the courts
• Aunts, uncles or older siblings who stepped in during a family crisis and now need to prove the care arrangement to Centrelink
• Carers who have been told by Centrelink they need "secondary evidence" for their non-parent care claim and have no clear list of what counts
• Adult children helping a parent assemble the paperwork for a grandchild they are raising
• Carers in regional Tasmania — Devonport, Burnie, the West Coast, King Island — who cannot easily visit a Centrelink office and need to get paperwork right before mailing or uploading it
• Anyone whose child care provider needs ACCS Grandparent documentation and the parent is not cooperating with the transfer

Who This Is NOT For

• Carers who already have a formal DECYP care order — your caseworker should be coordinating your paperwork and you are eligible for state allowances this guide does not cover
• Anyone seeking legal advice about whether to apply for a parenting order — that decision requires a solicitor, not a guide
• Carers who only need to make one straightforward Centrelink claim with both parents cooperating — the Grandparent Advisers (1800 245 965) can handle that in a phone call
• Anyone looking for official government forms — the guide does not contain them or replace them

What the Guide Gives Informal Carers Specifically

The reason informal care is harder than formal care is the evidence burden. With a court order, Centrelink has a document that says "this person has authority over this child." Without one, you have to build that proof yourself. The guide includes:

1. The Informal Care Evidence Assembly Checklist — examples of secondary evidence Centrelink may accept for non-parent claims: statutory declarations, immunisation records, school principal statements, doctor letters and more. Services Australia's FA012 form records shared care arrangements for Family Tax Benefit or Child Care Subsidy. The checklist explains what supporting documents to attach and what to do when a parent refuses to cooperate with the transfer.

2. The Tasmanian Agency Map — which community kinship organisation covers your specific region. Baptcare serves the North and South West. Mission Australia serves the North West and South East. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre and SETAC serve Palawa families. Getting this wrong means calling the wrong office and starting over.

3. School enrolment without a court order — how to use DECYP's exceptional circumstances criteria for out-of-area enrolment, what evidence the school needs from an informal carer, and how to apply for the Student Assistance Scheme (STAS) for fee relief.

4. Medical consent as an informal carer — what Tasmanian clinics accept for routine care when you do not have formal parental responsibility, when you need explicit authorisation for major treatment, and a preparation worksheet for the first practice visit.

5. Benefit stacking for informal carers — how Family Tax Benefit Parts A and B, ACCS Grandparent (up to 100% of the fee when it is at or below the CCS hourly rate cap, or up to 120% of that cap when the fee is above it, for up to 100 hours per fortnight, with no activity test), Carer Allowance and Double Orphan Pension interact, so you do not accidentally reduce one payment by claiming another.

The Honest Tradeoff

Free services are genuinely good — but each one covers only its own territory. Centrelink's Grandparent Advisers know Centrelink payments. Legal Aid knows the court system. The Community Kinship Care Program provides peer support and respite. None of them will sit down with you and map the full picture across all three levels of government.

The guide does that mapping. It costs $24, comes with a free checklist you can download first to see if the full guide is worth it, and has a full refund with no time limit if it is not what you need.

If your situation is straightforward — one payment, one agency, one phone call — you probably do not need it. If you are managing evidence assembly, school enrolment, medical consent and multiple Centrelink claims at the same time, without a caseworker to coordinate them, this is the resource that was built for exactly that situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I get all the information in the guide for free online?

Most individual facts exist across Services Australia, DECYP and community websites. What does not exist for free is a single document that combines them for informal carers specifically, with worksheets to assemble evidence and track agency interactions.

Do I need this guide if I am planning to get a court order eventually?

If you are working toward a parenting order, Tasmania Legal Aid (1300 366 611) is your first call for the legal side. The guide still helps with the administrative paperwork that runs in parallel — Centrelink claims, school enrolment and medical consent do not wait for court timelines.

What if I have a DECYP caseworker already?

If you are in a formal care arrangement with DECYP case management, much of the coordination the guide provides should already be happening through your caseworker. The guide is designed for carers who do not have that support.

Is this guide affiliated with the Tasmanian Government?

No. It is independently published and claims no government connection. It is a preparation manual that helps you organise your own paperwork before dealing with agencies.

What if it does not help?

Email [email protected] for a full refund — no time limit, no questions.

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