Carer Payment vs Carer Allowance: Rates and Eligibility

Two payments, not one🔗

The single biggest source of confusion: Carer Payment and Carer Allowance are entirely separate. Carer Payment is income support, like the Age Pension but for carers: it replaces lost income and is income and assets tested. Carer Allowance is a modest supplement that sits on top of whatever you already get, whether that is a wage, Carer Payment, JobSeeker or anything else. The good news: you can receive both at once, and many carers do.

What Carer Payment is🔗

Carer Payment is for the carer, not the person being cared for. It goes to people providing constant care in the home to someone with a severe disability, serious illness, or frailty due to age, whose caring role means they cannot work full-time. It is paid at the pension rate, is income and assets tested, and requires the care receiver to be assessed with the Adult Disability Assessment Tool (adults) or Child Disability Assessment Tool (under 16), completed by their treating doctor.

What Carer Allowance is🔗

Carer Allowance is a fortnightly supplement of about $162.60 (2025-26). It is not income support, not asset tested, and its income test is generous: combined family income must be under $250,000 a year, which most carers pass easily. It can be paid on top of Carer Payment, a wage, JobSeeker or any other payment, and there is no work-hours restriction. It is often the easier first thing to check if you are caring for someone.

The 25-hour rule (you can still work)🔗

This is the most misunderstood part of Carer Payment, and it stops a lot of people applying. You can work, study or volunteer for up to 25 hours a week and still receive Carer Payment. Go over and it stops. The catch: the 25 hours includes travel time, so a 22-hour job with a 4-hour weekly commute puts you over. Carer Allowance, by contrast, has no work-hours limit at all.

How much each pays (2025-26)🔗

Indexed in March and September. Always confirm current rates with Services Australia.

The $600 Carer Supplement is paid automatically each July to Carer Payment recipients, no application needed. A separate $600 Carer Allowance Supplement goes to Carer Allowance recipients who are not also on Carer Payment.

Carer Payment vs Carer Allowance, and the tests🔗

Carer Payment uses the same income and assets tests as the Age Pension, and importantly, only the carer's income and assets count, not the care receiver's. As a single person your payment starts reducing above $226 a fortnight of income, and the assets test full-rate limit is $333,000 (single homeowner), with your home exempt. The mechanics mirror our Age Pension guide.

When Carer Payment stops🔗

It does not stop the instant your situation changes. You get up to 63 days a calendar year of temporary cessation of care (hospital, respite, or a break) without losing the payment, resetting each 1 January. If the care receiver dies, Carer Payment continues for 14 weeks to give you breathing room. It stops when the caring role genuinely ends (recovery, or permanent residential aged care), if you exceed the 25-hour rule, or if you no longer meet residency or the means tests.

How to claim🔗

Claim online via myGov linked to Centrelink, or call Services Australia on 132 717. You will need proof of identity, your tax file number, bank details, and medical evidence for the care receiver (your claim triggers the ADAT or CDAT assessment, completed by their doctor). You can claim both Carer Payment and Carer Allowance in a single application. Claim early: payment is generally not backdated beyond your claim date. If you are between jobs rather than caring, see JobSeeker Payment instead, and families should also check the Family Tax Benefit.

❓ Frequently asked questions🔗

Keep reading🔗

• JobSeeker Payment: rates and eligibility
• The Age Pension: rates and eligibility
• Family Tax Benefit explained
• Childcare Subsidy explained