Kinship Care Guide vs Free Government Help in Tasmania: Which Do You Actually Need?
If you are raising a relative's child in Tasmania and trying to decide between buying a kinship care guide or relying on the free help from Centrelink, Legal Aid and community programs, the honest answer is that you probably need both — but for different things. Free government services answer specific questions inside their jurisdiction. A paid guide organises the questions across all the jurisdictions so you know what to ask and what to bring before you pick up the phone.
That distinction matters because kinship care paperwork in Tasmania crosses three levels of government and at least five agencies, and none of them will coordinate the others for you.
What Free Government Help Actually Covers
Tasmania has genuinely useful free services for kinship carers. They are not a token gesture — they do real work within their scope.
| Resource | What It Does Well | What It Cannot Do |
|---|---|---|
| Centrelink Grandparent Advisers (1800 245 965) | Answers payment questions, helps with FTB transfers, explains ACCS Grandparent eligibility | Cannot help with DECYP school enrolment, medical consent, or state-level concessions |
| Tasmania Legal Aid (1300 366 611) | Free legal information; advice specific to your situation is subject to eligibility | Does not assist with Centrelink claims, school forms or daily paperwork |
| Community Kinship Care Program (Baptcare / Mission Australia) | Peer groups, respite, brokerage funding, family support | Regionally split catchments; no downloadable paperwork tools; waitlists common |
| Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre / SETAC | Culturally safe support for Palawa families | Focused on community-level advocacy, not claim-by-claim paperwork assembly |
| Hobart Community Legal Service (Law Handbook) | Plain-language legal explainers | Explains principles; no fillable worksheets or evidence checklists |
Each one answers questions inside its lane. None of them gives you a single document that connects all the lanes together.
What a Paid Kinship Care Guide Covers
A Tasmania-specific kinship care guide like the Support for Grandparents and Kinship Carers in Tasmania guide fills the coordination gap. It combines federal Centrelink rules, Tasmanian DECYP school policies, medical consent requirements, regional service boundaries and evidence assembly into one reference.
The guide includes practical tools that free services do not provide:
- An Evidence Assembly Checklist — every piece of secondary proof Centrelink accepts for informal care claims without a court order (statutory declarations, immunisation records, school principal statements, doctor letters), laid out so you can see what you have and what is missing
- A Tasmanian Agency Map — which community kinship organisation covers your region (Baptcare for the North and South West, Mission Australia for the North West and South East) so you call the right office the first time
- A Contact and Notice Log — a structured record of every phone call, reference number, document submitted and follow-up deadline across Centrelink, DECYP and Medicare
- Benefit stacking tables — how FTB Parts A and B, ACCS Grandparent, Carer Allowance and Double Orphan Pension interact, so claiming one does not accidentally reduce another
Where the Guide Sends You to Free Help
The guide does not replace free services. It lists every free contact — Centrelink's Grandparent Advisers, Legal Aid clinics in Hobart, Launceston, Burnie and Devonport, Kin Raising Kids Tasmania, the Community Kinship Care Program referral line (1800 951 123), and the Strong Families Safe Kids crisis line (1800 000 123). It sends you there explicitly and tells you what to bring so the appointment is productive from the first minute.
Free advisers answer specific questions well. They answer them better when you arrive with your evidence file assembled and your questions written down.
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Everything in this article as a printable checklist — plus action plans and reference guides you can start using today.
Who Should Use Free Help Alone
- Carers who already know every payment they qualify for and have already gathered their secondary evidence
- Carers with an assigned caseworker through DECYP who is coordinating their paperwork (formal care arrangements typically include this)
- Carers who only have one straightforward claim to make — a single FTB transfer with both parents cooperating
- Anyone in the first week of an emergency placement — use the crisis line (1800 000 123) first, not a guide
Who Should Use Free Help Plus the Guide
- Grandparents or relatives in informal care arrangements without a court order, where the evidence assembly is the hard part
- Carers managing claims across Centrelink, DECYP and Medicare simultaneously
- Carers in regional Tasmania — Devonport, Burnie, the West Coast, King Island — who cannot easily visit agencies in person and need to get phone calls right the first time
- Anyone who has already called Centrelink and been told they need "more evidence" without a clear list of what counts
- Adult children helping a parent navigate the paperwork for a grandchild in their care
Who This Is NOT For
- Carers who need legal advice about a custody dispute — that is Legal Aid's job, not a guide's
- Carers seeking official government forms — the guide does not contain or replace them
- Anyone looking for a guarantee of payment approval — government decisions depend on your circumstances
The Real Tradeoff
Free government help is free and expert within its lane. A paid guide costs $24 and organises the work across every lane before you start making calls.
The question is not whether free help is good — it is. The question is whether you want to spend hours working out which agency handles which part and what documents each one needs, or whether you want that mapping done for you so the free calls are shorter and more productive.
If you have already assembled your evidence, navigated DECYP's school enrolment rules, understood how ACCS Grandparent interacts with FTB, and know exactly which community service covers your region, you probably do not need the guide. If any of those feel uncertain, the guide is the preparation layer that makes every free service work faster.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the guide replace calling Centrelink's Grandparent Advisers?
No. The guide prepares you for that call — it helps you assemble the evidence and questions before you dial 1800 245 965. The advisers are the experts on Centrelink payments; the guide is the organiser that makes sure you walk in ready.
Can I get all the information in the guide for free if I search long enough?
Most of the individual facts exist across government websites, legal handbooks and community portals. What does not exist for free is a single document that combines them, organises them by task, and gives you worksheets to track your progress. The guide's value is in the assembly and the tools, not in any single piece of information.
Is the guide worth it if I only need help with one payment?
If you have a single, straightforward Centrelink claim and both parents are cooperating, calling the Grandparent Advisers (1800 245 965) is probably all you need. The guide is most useful when you are managing multiple claims and agencies at once, or when the evidence assembly is the hard part.
What if the guide does not help me?
Email [email protected] for a full refund — no time limit, no questions. A free checklist is also available if you want to start with that.
Is the guide affiliated with Centrelink or DECYP?
No. It is independently published and claims no government connection. It is a preparation manual — it helps you organise your paperwork before you deal with the agencies themselves.
Get Your Free Tasmania Kinship Carer Checklist
Download the Tasmania Kinship Carer Checklist — a printable guide with checklists, scripts, and action plans you can start using today.