Centrelink One-Off Payments: Who is Eligible and How Much Can You Get in 2024?

Following the release of the 2024-25 Federal Budget, there’s been a fair bit of discussion around the cost of living and Centrelink support payments. One area in particular is Centrelink’s one-off payments in 2024: what do they cover, and who is eligible for them?

Here’s a look at the government’s Crisis Payment through Centrelink and how it works in 2024.

Centrelink’s one-off payments in 2024: What’s available?

Centrelink’s one-off Crisis Payments have been split into to different categories for people experiencing “extreme circumstances,” Services Australia states.

Those include:

• Crisis Payment for extreme circumstances family and domestic violence
• Crisis Payment for humanitarian entrants
• Crisis Payment for release from prison or psychiatric confinement
• Crisis Payment for other extreme circumstances

There was previously a one-off payment in place with Centrelink for the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, but this has since ceased.

Centrelink’s one-off payments in 2024: Who is eligible?

Okay, so eligibility for these Centrelink one-off payments varies depending on which crisis you’re claiming under. We’ve gone through and broken down each one ahead, but generally speaking, Services Australia has listed the following on its website regarding eligibility:

We consider an extreme circumstance to be one of the following:

• you experienced an incident of family and domestic violence that forced you to leave your home
• you stayed in your home after experiencing domestic violence and the family member responsible left or was removed from the home
• you had to leave your home because of a natural or other disaster not covered by a disaster relief payment
• you arrived in Australia as a humanitarian entrant for the first time
• you were in prison or psychiatric confinement for a period of at least 14 days

Eligibility for family and domestic violence Crisis Payment

Per Services Australia, to be eligible for this payment, you must meet the below:

• have experienced family and domestic violence
• be contactable by our social workers to assess your situation
• be eligible for, or getting, an income support payment or ABSTUDY Living Allowance
• be in one of the required living arrangements
• be in Australia when the incident happened and when you submit your claim
• be in severe financial hardship.
• contact us within 7 days of your living arrangements changing

The required living arrangements, as listed above, are that you’ve ‘Left your home,’ you’re ‘Staying in your home’ after the departure of the violent family member, or you’ve been ‘Removed from your home’.

Read more about the eligibility factors here.

Eligibility for humanitarian entrants Crisis Payment

Per Services Australia, to be eligible for this one-off Centrelink payment, you must fit the following criteria:

be eligible for, or getting, an income support payment or ABSTUDY Living Allowance
be in severe financial hardship
have arrived in Australia as a humanitarian entrant for the first time on a certain visa subclass
be in Australia when you submit your claim
contact us within 7 days of your first arrival in Australia

The humanitarian entrants included in this payment are listed as follows:

200 – Refugee
201 – In-Country Special Humanitarian
202 – Global Special Humanitarian (Special Humanitarian Programme – SHP)
203 – Emergency Rescue
204 – Woman at Risk

More on this here.

Eligibility for the release from prison or psychiatric confinement Crisis Payment

Per Services Australia, the requirements for this one-off Centrelink payment are:

• be eligible for, or getting an income support payment or ABSTUDY Living Allowance
• be in severe financial hardship
• be charged with committing an offence
• have spent 14 or more days in prison or psychiatric confinement
• be in Australia when you make your claim
• contact us or make a claim up to 21 days before your expected release date, or within 7 days after

More on this here.

Eligibility for the extreme circumstances Crisis Payment

Per Services Australia, this one-off Centrelink payment is available in cases where people:

• left your house due an extreme circumstance, such as fire, flood or community violence and it’s unreasonable for you to return to your home in the near future
• intend to establish or have established a new home
• couldn’t avoid or predict that the extreme circumstance would happen
• be eligible for, or getting, an income support payment or ABSTUDY Living Allowance
• be in severe financial hardship
• be in Australia when the extreme circumstance happened and when you submit your claim.
• contact us or make a claim within 7 days of deciding that you can’t return to your home

The website states that evidence will need to be shown in the case of such extreme circumstances.

More on that here.

How much can you receive?

For family and domestic violence, the one-off Centrelink payment is “equal to a week’s pay at the maximum basic rate of your income support payment or ABSTUDY Living Allowance”.

For humanitarian entrants, the payment is listed as “equal to a week’s pay at the maximum basic rate of your income support payment”.

For the release from prison or psychiatric confinement payment, the amount is listed as “equal to a week’s pay at the maximum basic rate of your income support payment or ABSTUDY Living Allowance”.

For the extreme circumstances one-off Centrelink payment, folks can receive up to 4 payments in a 12 month period. Like with the above examples, “it’s equal to a week’s pay at the maximum basic rate of your income support payment or ABSTUDY Living Allowance,” Services Australia writes.

If you’d like to make a claim, you can do so through your myGov account.

Lead Image Credit: iStock/myGov