Informal Kinship Care in WA: Your Rights, Payments and Options

Most grandparents and relatives raising children in Western Australia are doing it informally — a family arrangement with no court orders and no Department of Communities involvement. It's the most common form of kinship care, and it comes with both freedom and limitations that are worth understanding clearly.

What Informal Kinship Care Means

Informal kinship care is a private family arrangement where a child lives with a grandparent or other relative full-time, without any statutory care order. The biological parents retain legal parental responsibility. The Department of Communities has no involvement, and no court has made any orders about the child's living situation.

This is different from:

• Formal kinship care (foster care) — where the Department of Communities has placed the child with you under a statutory care order, approves you as a relative foster carer, and pays a foster care subsidy
• Special Guardianship Orders — where the Children's Court has given you full parental responsibility under Section 69 of the Children and Community Services Act 2004
• Parenting orders — where the Family Court of WA has allocated parental responsibility to you

Your Rights as an Informal Carer

Here's what you can do without a court order:

• Receive Centrelink payments — Family Tax Benefit Part A and B, Parenting Payment, and ACCS Grandparent if you're a grandparent on income support
• Claim the Grandcarers Support Scheme — the $1,000 annual payment plus cost-of-living top-ups, if you meet the scheme criteria, including at least four months of full-time primary care (grandparents only)
• Enrol the child in a WA public school — using a statutory declaration and the Informal Carer Declaration form
• Consent to routine medical treatment — GP visits, standard vaccinations, minor illness care
• List the child on your Medicare card — via Form MS011

Here's what you can't do without a court order:

• Consent to non-emergency surgery or elective medical procedures
• Override a biological parent's legal decisions about the child
• Take the child overseas without parental consent
• Prevent a biological parent from contact with the child (unless there's a protection order)

Informal Care vs Foster Care: The Financial Comparison

Formal foster carers receive a Department of Communities subsidy. Informal grandparent carers may qualify for the GSS and federal payments; the supports depend on the care arrangement. Formal foster care includes Department of Communities case management.

Many informal carers prefer the arrangement specifically because it avoids government involvement. If the child is safe and the arrangement is working, there's no obligation to formalise.

When to Consider Formalising

The main reasons to seek a court order are:

• The biological parents are contesting your care
• You need to travel interstate or overseas with the child
• Medical providers require formal authority for a procedure
• You want legal certainty that the arrangement can't be disrupted

Legal Aid WA (1300 650 579) provides free advice on whether your situation warrants a parenting order.

The WA Kinship Carer Support Guide covers the full informal care pathway — every payment, every form, every school and medical step — without assuming you have or need a court order.

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