How to Navigate Centrelink and DCP as a Grandparent Suddenly Raising a Grandchild in South Australia

If a grandchild has just arrived at your door in South Australia and is safe in a private family arrangement, start with Centrelink — not DCP — for payment claims. If the child is at risk of harm, call 000 or the Child Abuse Report Line (CARL 13 14 78). Services Australia's Grandparent, Foster and Kinship Carer Adviser Line (1800 245 965) handles the payments most informal carers actually qualify for, while DCP's Carer Support Payments are restricted to carers under statutory court orders. Getting this order wrong is the most common mistake, and it costs weeks of wasted effort chasing a payment you were never eligible for.

This matters because the two systems — federal (Centrelink) and state (DCP, Department for Education, SA Health, DHS) — run on completely separate rules that don't talk to each other. What you can claim from one depends on your legal status with the other, and nobody from either side volunteers the full picture.

The First 48 Hours: Immediate Steps

When a child arrives unexpectedly, the administrative work can wait a day or two, but these three things should happen quickly:

Day one: Make sure the child has a safe place to sleep, food, and any essential medication. For emergency material assistance, contact Grandcarers SA (08 8212 1937) to ask about available support; requests are subject to discretionary funding.

Day two: Start your proof-of-care file. This is the single most important administrative task because it underpins everything else. Write down the date the child arrived, the circumstances (as much as you're comfortable recording), and start collecting any documents that show the child is living with you — even something as simple as a receipt for children's clothing or a note from a neighbour confirming the child has been staying at your home.

Within the first week: Call the Grandparent, Foster and Kinship Carer Adviser Line (1800 245 965). This is a specialist Centrelink line for non-parent carers, not the general queue. Have the child's full name, date of birth, and Medicare number (if you have it) ready, along with your own Centrelink Customer Reference Number.

Why Centrelink Before DCP

This is the core decision that trips up most new grandparent carers, so here it is plainly:

DCP (Department for Child Protection) administers Carer Support Payments — fortnightly payments by age bracket, Special Needs Loadings, start-up grants, and funded respite. These are for approved carers of children in statutory DCP care, such as under an order placing the child in the custody or guardianship of the Chief Executive, or a Long Term Guardianship (Specified Person) order under the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 (SA). If you've taken on a grandchild through a private family arrangement — the parent is in crisis, in hospital, in prison, or has left — you almost certainly don't have a statutory placement, and DCP will tell you you're not eligible.

Centrelink (Services Australia) administers Family Tax Benefit, Parenting Payment, Child Care Subsidy, and several other entitlements that don't require a court order. You need to prove that you have primary day-to-day care of the child, but you don't need DCP involvement to do it. This is where the money comes from for informal carers.

The Proof-of-Care Hurdle

The hardest part of claiming Centrelink payments as an informal carer isn't the application form — it's documenting the care arrangement when you have no court order and the biological parent hasn't signed a declaration. Centrelink assesses actual care and care percentages; your records help establish the arrangement and support a claim if the other carer disputes it.

Evidence is tiered from strongest to weakest:

• Strongest: A statutory declaration witnessed by a Justice of the Peace, school enrolment records showing your address, medical records showing you as the presenting adult, a letter from a social worker or counsellor
• Medium: Bills showing increased household costs (food, clothing, children's items), school permission slips signed by you, a letter from a neighbour or community leader, correspondence from the child's school addressed to you
• Weakest but still useful: Photographs showing the child's belongings at your home, receipts for children's clothing or supplies, a diary recording care arrangements

If the biological parent contests your claim — says the child is still in their care — Centrelink investigates. Having your evidence file assembled before you call the Adviser Line means you're prepared for this, and the specialist Centrelink officers can tell you exactly what additional documentation would strengthen your case.

School, Medical, and Household Concessions

Once you've started the Centrelink process, three other systems need attention:

School enrolment: You can enrol a child in a South Australian school without a court order, but you'll need evidence of primary care (the same file you're building for Centrelink works here). For School Card, Form A is the income-audit application and Form F (ED003F) is for formal or informal care arrangements. Children under the Guardianship of the Chief Executive attending government schools are automatically eligible; other care arrangements should apply using the appropriate form and supporting evidence.

Medical consent: Under the Consent to Medical Treatment and Palliative Care Act 1995 (SA), you can consent to routine medical treatment for a child in your care without parental signatures in many circumstances. Section 14B may allow an adult with day-to-day primary care to act as a "person responsible". Adding the child to your Medicare card (or getting a separate card in the child's name) is a separate administrative process through Services Australia. GP practices and pharmacies sometimes refuse treatment without a parent present; ask the provider what evidence they need, as a statutory declaration documents care but does not itself grant legal authority.

Household concessions: The Cost of Living Concession is $270.60 per year for eligible households; energy and water concessions have separate card, income, provider, and account-responsibility rules. The Emergency Electricity Payment Scheme can provide up to $800 in severe hardship. These aren't kinship-specific, but an extra child in the house increases your costs, and many carers don't realise these concessions exist.

Who This Is For

• Grandparents who have just taken on a grandchild in South Australia and don't know where to start
• Relatives told to "call DCP" who were turned away because their arrangement is informal
• Anyone navigating both Centrelink and state agencies simultaneously and confused about which one handles what
• Family members researching on behalf of an exhausted grandparent — looking for a clear, printable roadmap

Who This Is NOT For

• Formal kinship carers already approved by DCP with a statutory placement — your caseworker coordinates your support through the state system
• Anyone needing legal advice about custody or parenting orders — start with the Legal Services Commission Helpline (1300 366 424)
• Carers outside South Australia — school processes, concessions, and medical consent laws differ by state and territory

Tradeoffs of Self-Navigation vs Professional Help

Self-navigation is free but time-consuming. Every payment, school form, and medical consent process described above can be done without professional help. The information exists across government websites — Services Australia, DCP, the Department for Education, SA Health. The challenge is that it's scattered across dozens of separate pages that don't cross-reference each other, and you're trying to assemble the picture while also doing the school run, the cooking, and the emotional work of helping a child through a crisis.

Grandcarers SA provides peer support, not case management. They run Village groups where you can talk to other grandparent carers, and their Education Fund offers small grants. They're a lifeline for emotional support and community connection. But they can't fill in your Centrelink forms, walk you through the proof-of-care process, or explain the full map of payments by care arrangement type.

A kinship carer guide assembles the full picture in one place. The Support for Grandparents and Kinship Carers in South Australia guide puts Centrelink, DCP, Education, SA Health, and DHS side by side, with a care-arrangement decision tree showing which payments each legal status unlocks and what documents each agency needs. It includes the proof-of-care worksheet, a phone preparation script for the Adviser Line, and a claims tracker. It's designed for the specific situation described in this post: a grandparent who just took on a child, has no caseworker, and needs to navigate five agencies without spending A$350 an hour on a solicitor.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I contact DCP to report that a child is living with me?

That depends on why the child is with you. If the child is at risk of harm and needs protection, call the Child Abuse Report Line (CARL) on 13 14 78. It is open 24 hours a day; mandated reporters have a legal duty to report suspected harm. If the child is with you because the parent asked you to take them, or the parent is in hospital or away, and the child is safe in your care, you don't need to involve DCP. Many informal carers deliberately avoid DCP contact because they fear the child being placed with strangers, and in most private family arrangements that fear is unfounded — DCP's mandate is child protection, not policing family care arrangements.

How long does Centrelink take to assess a Family Tax Benefit claim?

Processing times vary with claim complexity, seasonal volume, and verification checks. If documents are missing, Services Australia gives you a 14-day window to upload them. Having your proof-of-care evidence assembled can help Centrelink assess the care arrangement.

Can I claim payments while the child's parent is still receiving Family Tax Benefit?

Yes. Centrelink assesses each carer's percentage of care. If you have 35% to 65% care, you may receive a share of FTB based on your actual care; a carer with more than 65% care may receive the full FTB amount. If the other carer disputes the care arrangement, Centrelink assesses the available evidence.

What if I'm on the Age Pension — can I still get Parenting Payment?

You can't receive both the Age Pension and Parenting Payment simultaneously. But you may be entitled to Family Tax Benefit (which supplements the pension), the Additional Child Care Subsidy (Grandparent) if the child is in early childhood education, the Foster Child Health Care Card, and various state concessions. A specialist Centrelink officer on the Adviser Line (1800 245 965) can assess exactly which combination of payments works with your pension.

Is there a single document that maps all the payments for informal carers in SA?

The Support for Grandparents and Kinship Carers in South Australia guide includes a care-arrangement decision tree that maps every payment by care arrangement type — informal, federal parenting order, statutory guardianship (Chief Executive), and Long Term Guardian (Specified Person) — showing which agency pays each and what documents you need. No government website publishes this cross-agency view because each department only explains its own programmes.

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