Can I get an emergency payment from Centrelink?

Services Australia recognises five extreme circumstances for Crisis Payment: an incident of family and domestic violence that forced you to leave home; staying in the home after the family member responsible left or was removed; being forced out of your home by some other circumstance where it is unreasonable to return in the near future; arriving in Australia as a humanitarian entrant for the first time; and being in prison or psychiatric confinement for at least 14 days. A sixth type exists for a national health emergency, but Services Australia says there is no current health emergency you can claim it for. Each type has its own eligibility rules, and none of them is 'I have run out of money'.

Three tests have to be met at once. You must already be getting, or be eligible for, an income support payment or ABSTUDY Living Allowance. You must be in severe financial hardship, which the Social Security Guide defines for this payment as liquid assets worth less than a fortnight at your maximum payment rate if you are single, or less than twice that if you are a member of a couple — counting all cash and readily realisable assets, including money in the bank and earnings due. Note the two different rates at work: hardship is measured against the maximum payment rate, which includes the energy supplement and, where they apply, rent assistance, pharmaceutical allowance and pension supplement, while the payment itself is worked out on the basic rate alone. And you must have been in Australia when the extreme circumstance happened and when you lodge the claim.

The clock is short and it is the part most people miss. Each category has its own claim period, so check the one that applies to you. For the 'other extreme circumstances' category, the Social Security Guide says the claiming period starts the day you decide you cannot return home, and the claim must be made within seven days after that. Contacting Services Australia inside those seven days buys you time: you then have 14 days after the contact day to lodge. Starting a claim in your Centrelink online account, phoning your regular payment line, or walking into a service centre all count as contact. Evidence matters too: a police or fire report showing the date, the address and what happened. Photographs of property damage and news articles are expressly not accepted.

The amount is modest and capped. Crisis Payment equals one week of the maximum basic rate of your income support payment or ABSTUDY Living Allowance, without the other allowances and supplements, and it is paid once per incident. Across the family and domestic violence and other extreme circumstances categories combined, you can receive up to four payments in a 12-month period; the Social Security Guide notes that cap does not stop additional prison release payments in the same 12 months. It sits on top of your regular payment and, the Guide states, unlike advance loans and anticipated payments it is not recovered from future entitlements — though it can be raised as a debt if it turns out you were not qualified.

There is a second, quieter form of help attached to the 'other extreme circumstances' category. The Social Security Guide says people who qualify are also eligible for a hardship advance — an early payment of the first instalment of their income support payment at the maximum basic rate. That is an advance, not a bonus: it is recovered from the first regular payment. Ask about it in the same conversation as the Crisis Payment claim.

Several things rule it out. You cannot claim if you were evicted for not paying rent or a mortgage, if you chose to move rather than being forced out, if you do not intend to establish a new home, or if you brought about the circumstance in order to claim. You also cannot get it where you have received or are eligible for a disaster relief payment for the same event — the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment, Disaster Recovery Allowance or a state, territory or local grant. An assurance of support in force can also bar the payment.

If Crisis Payment is not the right door, two others exist. An advance payment brings forward part of your own income support payment or Family Tax Benefit Part A; the Social Security Guide is blunt that an advance is not an additional payment, and it is recovered out of your later instalments. Special Benefit is for people in financial hardship for reasons beyond their control who are not eligible for any other income support payment at all. Phone the payment line for your payment or attend a service centre and describe the situation plainly.