Australia's Carer Payment, in plain English
Income support for people who give constant care at home — and cannot work full time because of it.
Australia's Carer Payment is a fortnightly income support payment from Services Australia (through Centrelink) for people who provide constant care, in a private home, for someone with a severe disability, a serious illness, or frailty due to age. It exists because full-time caring usually makes ordinary full-time work impossible. The payment is meant to replace the income you cannot earn while you care, not to pay you a wage for caring, and not to cover the extra costs of disability itself. Those extra costs are what the smaller Carer Allowance is for, and the two payments are often paid together.
Carer Payment in one paragraph
To qualify, you must personally give constant care to a person whose condition is likely to last at least six months, or who has a terminal illness, and whose care needs score high enough on a formal assessment. Both you and the person you care for must meet residence rules, you must pass the pension income and assets tests, and the person you care for must also pass a separate income and assets test of their own. The maximum rate from 20 September 2026 is $1,237.70 per fortnight for a single carer and $933.00 per fortnight for each partnered carer. You may do paid work up to 100 hours in a four-week period and still qualify. All amounts on this site are in Australian dollars (AUD).
The figures that matter most
| Item | Figure | Date and source basis |
|---|---|---|
| Carer Payment, single, maximum total | $1,237.70 per fortnight | From 20 September 2026, Services Australia |
| Carer Payment, partnered, each, maximum total | $933.00 per fortnight | From 20 September 2026, Services Australia |
| Carer Allowance, set rate | $162.60 per fortnight | Adjusted each 1 January, Services Australia |
| Carer Supplement, annual | $600 per eligible payment | Paid automatically each July |
| Work limit for Carer Payment | 100 hours in a four-week period | Paid or self-employed work, since 20 March 2025 |
| Respite | 63 days per calendar year | Services Australia, breaks from caring |
Every rate on this site is dated. Pension-rate payments are adjusted on 20 March and 20 September each year, so a figure quoted without a date is not safe to rely on. If you are reading this after the next indexation date, check the current rate with Services Australia before you budget around it.
Three different payments people mix up
Carer Payment (Australia) is the subject of this site: a means-tested, pension-rate income support payment for constant carers. Carer Allowance (Australia) is a smaller, set-rate supplement for people who give daily care and attention; it has no assets test and a family income cap instead. Carer's Allowance (United Kingdom) is a different country's benefit, with its own weekly rate and earnings rules in pounds sterling, and it is covered separately on our sister site for the United Kingdom. Nothing on this site applies to the United Kingdom, and nothing on that site applies to Australia. If a page you find online does not say which country it means, treat its figures with suspicion.
How this site is organised
Start with what Carer Payment is and who qualifies, then work through the income and assets tests and the payment rates with their worked examples. The Payment versus Allowance page sets the two Australian payments side by side. How to claim is the practical checklist, assessments explains the ADAT and child assessments in plain language, if care stops covers respite, hospital stays, and endings, and combining benefits explains what else can and cannot be paid at the same time. The FAQ answers the questions carers ask most, including scams to watch for.
Sources: Services Australia, Carer Payment pages (including “How much Carer Payment you can get”, last updated 20 September 2026; “Income and assets test for Carer Payment”; “How much Carer Allowance you can get”; “Working while you get Carer Payment”; “Breaks from caring when you get Carer Payment”); Services Australia pension income and assets test pages. Photo credits: see IMAGE_MANIFEST.md in the site build notes; every photograph is a freely licensed Wikimedia Commons image.