Who can claim Family Tax Benefit

Family Tax Benefit is paid to a parent, guardian or approved care organisation caring for an FTB child. Eligibility follows the child, not the parent: only one member of a couple can receive the payment for a child, and where care is shared, the payment may be shared too. The basic conditions below are the same for Part A and Part B; the parts then diverge on income and family structure, which the rates pages explain.

The child

For Part A, an FTB child is generally a dependent child aged 0 to 15, or aged 16 to 19 and in full-time secondary study (or with an exemption). A child aged 16 to 19 who has left secondary study does not attract Part A. For Part B, the test turns on the age of your youngest FTB child: under 13 for couple families, and up to the end of the calendar year in which the child turns 18 where the claimant is a single parent, a grandparent or a great-grandparent. That single-parent extension to 18 is one of the most useful differences between the two parts, and it is easy to miss if you only read the Part A age rules.

Care: the 35% line

You must care for the child for at least 35% of the time to receive FTB rates for that child. Parents caring for a child for 35% to 65% of the time may share the rates with another carer or carers, in proportion to care. Parents caring for a child for 14% to 34% of the time cannot receive these rates — but they may still be able to receive Rent Assistance, a Health Care Card, Remote Area Allowance, Child Care Subsidy and the lower threshold of the Medicare Safety Net. Below 14%, none of that FTB-linked package applies. Care percentages are worked out from the actual pattern of care, not from what a court order says on paper, so a change in the real pattern is a change you must report.

Residence

The claimant must be an Australian resident, a Special Category Visa holder residing in Australia, the holder of a specified temporary visa, or an eligible Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme worker or family member. The child must also meet the residence requirements or be living with the claimant. A newly arrived resident's waiting period of 52 weeks applies to claimants, with some exemptions. FTB may be paid for up to 6 weeks of a recipient's or child's temporary absence from Australia, although specified temporary visa holders may only be paid in limited circumstances while absent.

Immunisation and health checks

To meet the immunisation requirements, a child must be up to date with early childhood vaccinations, on a catch-up schedule under the current Australian Immunisation Handbook, or have a valid exemption. Families have their rate reduced for each child not meeting the immunisation requirements. Health-check requirements also apply where the recipient or their partner receives an income support payment and has a child who turns 4 during the financial year: the rate is reduced if the child has not had a health check by the time they turn 5, or if the family has not told Services Australia the check has happened. The reduction for not meeting either requirement is $36.54 a fortnight per child, and it also applies to lump-sum claims. This is a paperwork trap as much as a health rule: a completed check that was never reported still costs money.

What does not matter

There is no assets test for either part of FTB: savings, a house or a car do not reduce the payment. Employment does not matter either — FTB is not a jobseeker payment, and you do not need to be looking for work to receive it. What matters is care, residence, the child's age and study, immunisation and health checks, family income, and, for separated parents, child support action. Those are the tests this site works through, one page at a time.