Foster Child Health Care Card for Kinship Carers: How to Apply and What It Covers

The One Card With No Means Test

Most Centrelink concession cards are income-tested. The Foster Child Health Care Card is the exception. If you are a non-parent carer raising a child — grandparent, aunt, uncle, family friend — you can get this card regardless of your income or assets.

The name is misleading. You do not need to be a foster carer in the formal sense. The card is available to any person who provides primary care for a child and is not the child's biological or adoptive parent. Informal kinship carers qualify just as readily as DFFH-endorsed carers.

What the Card Gives You

Reduced prescription costs — the card qualifies the child for the concessional rate under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). For ongoing medications — asthma inhalers, ADHD medication, antibiotics — this adds up fast, especially when a child arrives with untreated health needs.

Victorian state concessions — holding any Health Care Card, including this one, qualifies you for state concessions on electricity, gas, and water bills. It also meets the eligibility requirement for the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) at school.

Local concessions — many councils, community health services, and recreation centres offer reduced fees to Health Care Card holders.

The card is issued in the child's name, not yours. If you already hold your own Pensioner Concession Card or Health Care Card, the Foster Child Health Care Card adds the child to the concession system independently.

How to Apply

Ask Services Australia how to apply for the Foster Child Health Care Card as an eligible non-parent carer. If you are lodging an FTB claim, raise the card with Centrelink at the same time so they can tell you what evidence and application steps are required.

If you have already claimed FTB but the card has not been issued, call Centrelink or the Grandparent, Foster and Kinship Carer Advisers on 1800 245 965 to check. It is sometimes overlooked in the processing, particularly when the FTB claim is straightforward and the non-parent carer status is not flagged.

You will need the same care evidence you provided for FTB: school records, GP letters, or a statutory declaration confirming you are the child's primary carer.

Why This Card Matters for CSEF and School

In Victoria, the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) pays $400 per eligible student per year for school activities. Eligibility requires the carer to hold a valid concession card — a Health Care Card, Pensioner Concession Card, or Veterans Affairs Gold Card — on the first day of Term 1 or Term 2.

The Foster Child Health Care Card satisfies this requirement. So even if your own income would not qualify you for a standard Health Care Card, the child's Foster Child Health Care Card opens the door to CSEF.

Card vs Carer Card — They Are Different

The Foster Child Health Care Card (Commonwealth, through Centrelink) is not the same as the Victorian Carer Card (state, through the Victorian Government). The Carer Card gives you transport concessions — a carer-coded myki with 50% off public transport. The Health Care Card gives you PBS and utility concessions.

You can hold both. They serve different purposes and have separate application processes.

The Victoria Kinship Carer Support guide covers both cards, including how each one unlocks different concessions across Victoria.

See more Victoria guides →