Who qualifies?

Both sides of the caring relationship must qualify: you as the carer, and the person you care for.

Carer Payment has two sets of rules that must both be met. You, the carer, must meet the caring, residence, work, and financial rules. The person you care for must meet the care-need, residence, and financial rules. If either side fails, the claim fails. This page sets out both sets in full, in plain language.

Rules for you, the carer

• You personally provide constant care for the person, in their private home. You do not have to live with them.
• The care stops you from engaging in substantial paid employment. In practice this is tested through the work limit: paid or self-employed work of up to 100 hours in a four-week period is allowed; study, training, volunteering, and travel time no longer count towards that limit since 20 March 2025.
• You meet the residence rules. In general you must be an Australian resident living in Australia, with the usual exceptions Services Australia applies for people in particular circumstances.
• You pass the pension income test and the pension assets test, applied to you and your partner combined where you have a partner.
• You tell Services Australia within 14 days about changes that affect your payment, including starting work, changing hours, or a change in the caring arrangement.

Rules for the person you care for

• They have a disability, medical condition, or frailty that means they need constant care in their private home.
• The need is likely to last at least six months, or they have a terminal illness.
• They reach the required assessment score: for an adult, an Adult Disability Assessment Tool (ADAT) total of at least 25, including at least 10 from the treating health professional's part (a lower ADAT pathway exists where the care receiver also cares for a dependent child — see the assessments page). For a child, a qualifying Disability Care Load Assessment (child) Determination score is required.
• They meet the residence rules, generally as an Australian resident.
• They pass the care receiver income and assets test, unless they already receive an income support payment from Services Australia or the Department of Veterans' Affairs. That test is set out on the income and assets tests page.

Caring for more than one person

You may qualify by caring for two or more people whose combined care needs equal the needs of one person who qualifies on their own. This combined-care pathway matters for families caring for, say, two children with disabilities, or a child and an adult, where no single person's needs alone would reach the threshold. The assessments page explains how combined care is scored. Similarly, two or more carers can sometimes qualify for the same care receiver, and care can be shared — but shared care changes how Carer Allowance is split, and each carer's own work and financial tests still apply separately.

Short-term, episodic, and exchanged care

For children, there are additional pathways for short-term care and episodic care, where care is needed for at least three months but less than six months, and for exchanged care arrangements where two carers swap the caring role and each provides care for a significant part of every day. These pathways have their own assessment rules and are worth asking about if your situation does not fit the standard six-month pattern. Do not assume a short-term caring role cannot qualify, and do not assume it automatically does — the length and intensity of the care are both assessed.

Common reasons claims fail

The most common reasons are an assessment score below the threshold, a care receiver income or assets figure above the care receiver test, a carer's own income or assets above the pension tests, and a caring arrangement that is not constant care in a private home — for example, care given mainly in a hospital or residential facility, or help that is regular but not at the level of constant personal care. A refusal is not necessarily final: Services Australia has review and appeal processes, and a change in circumstances, such as a worsening condition or a lower income, can support a new claim. The FAQ page explains reviews in outline.

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.