Can I Get Access To Centrelink (Welfare) Payments? – A Guide
This post reflects the legal landscape as of the date of publication. Laws may have changed since then. Please consult a legal professional for current information and personalised advice.
Centrelink is Australia’s welfare system. Quite a generous system many would say. First things first, Centrelink is the only Centrelink expert, and you should only rely on information that you get from them not from third parties (even us). That said, we understand that Centrelink entitlements are an important aspect in making migration decision, so we want to point you in the right direction.
Typically. newly arrived residents will need to wait 104 weeks before they are entitled to receive payments or use services from Centrelink. Centrelink also has Job Search facilities which may have no waiting period. The residency waiting period is calculated on how much time you have physically been living in Australia for.
However, there are many exceptions. You will not typically need to wait if you are:
- An Australian citizen
- Arriving as part of a refugee or humanitarian program
- A family member of a refugee or humanitarian migrant
- A holder of a specific visa subclass and claiming certain payments (specifically 852, 104, 116, 806, 836, 060, 070, 449, 785, 786, 790)
- Seeking specific family assistance payments such as Family Tax Benefit, Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate.
Additionally, if seeking an Australian pension (Age pension, Disability Support pension or Carer payment), you may not need to fulfill the residence time requirement if you lived in a country that has a social security agreement with Australia. These countries are listed below.
- Austria
- Belgium
- Canada
- Chile
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Finland
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- India
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Korea
- Latvia
- The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
- Malta
- The Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Slovak Republic
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Switzerland
- United States of America
Please speak with Centrelink for their confirmation and do not make any decisions based on this overview.