Kinship Carer Rights in the ACT: What You Are Entitled to as a Relative Raising a Child

Your Rights Depend on the Type of Care Arrangement

If you are raising a relative's child in the ACT, the rights you hold depend on whether your arrangement is informal, backed by a federal parenting order, or a statutory out-of-home care placement through the Community Services Directorate (CSD).

Informal carers — grandparents, aunts, uncles or family friends who stepped in without any court order — retain no automatic legal authority over the child. Parental responsibility stays with the biological parents. You can still claim Commonwealth payments like Family Tax Benefit and the Foster Child Health Care Card, but you need to prove "actual care" to Services Australia, typically through statutory declarations and professional support letters from doctors or teachers.

Statutory kinship carers — those approved by CSD after a child protection investigation — receive the ACT Foster and Kinship Care Subsidy, caseworker support, and access to discretionary funding for school costs, health expenses and establishment items. The Director-General of CSD holds parental responsibility, and day-to-day decisions are delegated to you under your care plan.

Carers with a federal parenting order sit in between: you hold formal authority from the Federal Circuit and Family Court, which settles school enrolment and medical consent questions, but you do not receive territory subsidies because the child is not in statutory care.

The Right to Information and Participation

If CSD places a child in your care, ask your caseworker how you will be informed about the child's care plan, upcoming reviews and proposed changes to the placement. Carers ACT can help you prepare for case conferences and contribute information about the child's schooling, health and cultural connections.

When you disagree with a CSD decision — a change to the contact schedule, a refusal to reimburse an expense, or a placement review outcome — you can request an internal administrative review through CSD Executive Management. If that does not resolve it, the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) or the ACT Ombudsman can examine the decision.

The Right to Financial Support

Regardless of your arrangement type, you have rights to Commonwealth financial assistance:

• Family Tax Benefit Parts A and B — a proportion may be available to non-parent carers with at least 35% actual care, subject to income and household rules
• Foster Child Health Care Card — issued in the child's name with no means test against your income; provides PBS concession medicines and lower Medicare Safety Net thresholds
• Double Orphan Pension — non-means-tested, payable when both parents are deceased or when one parent has died and the surviving parent is incarcerated for at least 10 years, admitted to a psychiatric institution indefinitely, or missing after reasonable search efforts
• Carer Allowance — a supplementary fortnightly payment if the child has a recognised disability or severe medical condition
• Additional Child Care Subsidy (Grandparent) — for eligible grandparents on income support, up to 100% of the benchmark fee for up to 100 hours per fortnight

Statutory carers additionally receive the ACT Foster and Kinship Care Subsidy, which is tax-exempt and not counted as income for Centrelink purposes. Informal carers are excluded from this payment.

The Right to Advocacy and Free Legal Help

You do not have to navigate the system alone. Carers ACT runs the Kinship and Foster Carers Advocacy Service — free, independent support workers who help you prepare for case conferences, draft requests for CSD financial reimbursements, and resolve disputes about care plans. Contact them at (02) 6296 9965.

Free legal advice is available through Legal Aid ACT (1300 654 314) for family law, child protection hearings and grandparent care disputes, and through Canberra Community Law (02 6218 7900) for social security appeals and Centrelink debt recovery.

For complex Centrelink matters, call the Grandparent, Foster and Kinship Carer Adviser Line on 1800 245 965 — specialist advisers who understand carer-specific rules.

The Right to Appeal Centrelink Decisions

If Centrelink rejects a claim or reassesses your payment, you can request a formal review by an Authorised Review Officer (ARO) within 13 weeks. If the ARO upholds the decision, you can appeal to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) — the first tier is free and informal. You do not need a lawyer for the first tier, though Legal Aid ACT can help you prepare.

The critical point: an informal phone conversation with a Centrelink officer does not start the appeal clock. You must explicitly request an ARO review, either in writing or recorded as such during the call.

What You Can Do Right Now

Understanding your rights as a kinship carer in the ACT is the first step. Putting them into practice — lodging claims on time, keeping evidence organised, knowing which agency handles which payment — is where most carers get stuck.

The ACT Kinship Carer Support Guide brings together every payment, every form and every agency contact into one structured toolkit, with tracking worksheets for expenses, claim progress and care evidence.

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