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I'm becoming more independent. Can this affect my Centrelink payments?
There's a number of things when that is occurring that may relevant to, in particular, the amount
of money that you get. There's a whole range of things that Centrelink expects people to
tell them about, and that can have a negative impact on your payment, and it can also have
a positive impact on your payment.
And one of those things is if your living circumstances change. So that's if you are
forced to move out of your family home, or you choose to. In some circumstances that
will mean that you can be paid an additional amount of money. But there are a whole series
of complicated criteria for that.
The other sorts of the things that can affect that is if you enter into a relationship,
that will have a significant impact on your income, because your partners' income will
be taken into account at some time or other.
For Youth Allowance that doesn't occur for the first twelve months. But after that, their
income will be taken into account. If you are no longer dependent on your parents, then
that is a complicating issue in and of itself, because there are grounds in the legislation,
particularly for Youth Allowance, that talk about when it's legitimate, or when Centrelink
considers that you're independent of your parents. And that in and of itself means that
you may get a higher rate of payment.
In terms of getting work, that will also be determined b what payment you're on. If you're
receiving Youth Allowance or Newstart Allowance and some other payments, there will be an
expectation by Centrelink that you do look for work, and that'll will be an expectation
that is a condition of you receiving the payment. For Disability Support Pension, that's not
the case. That's not the case.
For more information, visit the Youth Disability Rights Hub at www.youthdisabilityrights.org.au.