Out-of-Home Care and the Kinship Care Subsidy in the ACT

What Out-of-Home Care Means in the ACT

Out-of-home care (OOHC) is the formal term for any arrangement where a child lives away from their parents under a statutory care and protection order. In the ACT, the Community Services Directorate (CSD) manages OOHC through Child and Youth Protection Services (CYPS), and placements are authorised under the Children and Young People Act 2008.

When a child is placed with a relative — a grandparent, aunt, uncle or older sibling — under an OOHC order, that is statutory kinship care. The carer is assessed and approved by the Kinship Assessment and Support Team, and the child remains under CSD's legal authority for the duration of the order.

This is different from informal kinship care, where a family takes in a child privately without CSD involvement. The distinction matters enormously, because access to the ACT Foster and Kinship Care Subsidy depends entirely on whether the child is in statutory OOHC.

The ACT Foster and Kinship Care Subsidy

The primary territory payment for approved OOHC carers is the Foster and Kinship Care Subsidy. It is paid fortnightly by CSD and structured across age bands that reflect the escalating cost of care as children grow.

Key features:

• Tax-exempt — it is classified as a reimbursement for care expenses, not assessable income for ATO purposes
• Not counted as income for Centrelink — it does not affect your Age Pension, Disability Support Pension, or Family Tax Benefit calculations
• Covers basic living costs — food, housing contribution, clothing, personal items and leisure
• Age-banded — rates increase with the child's age to match higher costs for older children and teenagers

On top of the fortnightly subsidy, CSD maintains a discretionary funding pool for approved exceptional expenses. These require prior written authorisation from your caseworker and cover:

• Essential school uniforms, book packs, excursion fees and specialist subject fees
• Out-of-pocket medical costs not covered by Medicare or the NDIS (specialist appointments, prescriptions, dental, psychological therapies)
• Establishment costs when the child first arrives — bedding, furniture, safety equipment, initial clothing
• Transport for birth family contact visits, therapeutic appointments and planned respite

What Informal Kinship Carers Miss Out On

If you are raising a relative's child without CSD involvement — no care order, no statutory placement — you are excluded from the Foster and Kinship Care Subsidy. This is territory policy: CSD statutory funds are legislatively restricted to children in out-of-home care.

There is no informal carer allowance from the ACT Government.

This does not mean there is no financial support. Informal carers access a different set of payments through the Commonwealth:

• Family Tax Benefit Parts A and B — per-child, income-tested assistance; at least 35% actual care is the threshold for a proportion, subject to other eligibility rules, including restrictions when living with the child's birth parent
• Foster Child Health Care Card — non-means-tested, gives the child PBS concession medicines and bulk-billing access
• Double Orphan Pension — if both parents are deceased, or one is deceased and the surviving parent is incarcerated for at least 10 years, admitted to a psychiatric institution indefinitely, or missing after reasonable search efforts
• 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
• ACT utility rebates — up to $800 per year on electricity, gas and water for holders of a Pensioner Concession Card or Health Care Card
• Future of Education Equity Fund — annual grants ($400 preschool, $500 primary, $750 high school) for low-income families holding an eligible concession card

The financial gap between statutory and informal care is real and widely felt. Informal carers perform the same daily care as statutory carers but rely on standard income-tested social security rather than purpose-built subsidies.

Enduring Parental Responsibility Orders

An Enduring Parental Responsibility (EPR) order under section 223 of the Children and Young People Act 2008 transfers long-term legal responsibility for the child to you until they turn 18. It reduces CSD's ongoing case management oversight while maintaining specified financial subsidies — though the exact support package is subject to policy review at the time of the order.

EPR orders are typically sought for stable, long-term placements where the child is unlikely to return to their parents. They give you more autonomy over day-to-day decisions (schooling, medical, travel) while retaining the financial safety net of the statutory system.

Navigating the Gap

Whether you are in statutory OOHC or caring informally, the paperwork, the agencies and the claim processes are complex. The ACT Kinship Carer Support Guide maps every payment pathway — territory and Commonwealth — with step-by-step instructions and tracking worksheets for both formal and informal carers.

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