Kinship Carer Payments South Australia: Financial Help for Grandparents

The Two Payment Systems You Need to Understand

South Australia runs two completely separate funding streams for kinship carers, and which one you can access depends entirely on your care arrangement — not on how much you need the money.

State payments through DCP go to approved family-based carers who have a child placed in their care. This includes approved statutory kinship placements and Long Term Guardianship (Specified Person). Informal private family arrangements without a DCP placement do not qualify for DCP Carer Support Payments.

Federal payments through Centrelink are available to almost any non-parent carer who can prove they have primary care of a child — including informal kinship carers with no court order at all. This is where most grandparent carers in SA access their financial support.

The gap between these two streams is real: approximately two-thirds of informal kinship carers in South Australia live below the poverty line, and informal carers fall outside the DCP payment system.

What Informal Carers Can Claim Through Centrelink

If you are raising a relative's child without a DCP placement, your financial route runs through Services Australia. Here is what is available:

Family Tax Benefit Part A — paid per child to offset the direct cost of raising them. Rates vary by age and are income-tested against your family income.

Family Tax Benefit Part B — an additional household-level payment for single-income families or sole carers. If you are a grandparent carer on your own, this is likely available to you.

Double Orphan Pension — a non-means-tested supplement if both parents are deceased, or one parent is deceased and the other is in prison long-term, medically incapacitated or uncontactable.

Parenting Payment Single — available if you are the principal carer of a child under 14 and meet the income test.

Carer Allowance and Carer Payment — if the child has a severe disability or medical condition requiring constant care.

None of these payments reduce your Age Pension if you are already receiving one.

DCP Carer Support Payments (Statutory Carers Only)

If you are an approved carer under a Youth Court order, DCP pays you a fortnightly Carer Support Payment. These are non-taxable reimbursements — they do not count as income for tax or for Centrelink income testing.

DCP also provides:

• Special Needs Loadings (Levels 1–4) for children with physical, intellectual or behavioural complexities
• Incidental payments for school camps, family contact travel and therapeutic costs
• Start-up grants when a child first arrives in your care
• Post-18 support (Supported Family-Based Care) for young people continuing to live with you up to age 21 or 26

State Concessions Everyone Should Check

Regardless of your care arrangement, if you hold a Pensioner Concession Card, Health Care Card or Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, you can claim South Australia's household concessions through ConcessionsSA at sa.gov.au/concessions:

• Cost of Living Concession: $270.60 per year (2026–27 rate)
• Energy bill concession applied directly to your electricity account
• SA Concessions Energy Discount (SACEDO): 20% off electricity, 15% off gas with Origin Energy
• Emergency Electricity Payment: up to $800 for households in severe hardship
• Water and sewerage rate concession

These attach to your card status, not to the child, so they do not require any proof-of-care documentation.

School Card

The School Card scheme provides relief for materials and services charges. For a student in a formal or informal care arrangement at a government school, use Form F and provide evidence that the child is in your full-time care; this care-arrangement application is not assessed against the School Card income limits. Students under the Guardianship of the Chief Executive at government schools are automatically eligible and do not need to apply. Other students use the income-assessed application process.

The Complete Picture

Mapping every payment you are entitled to — and knowing which form to use for each — takes time most grandparent carers do not have. Our SA kinship carer guide lays out the full payment landscape with step-by-step claim instructions, evidence checklists and a tracker to keep every application moving.

See more South Australia guides →