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Special Needs Grant : Contents

Hardship obligations

Clients and their partners who apply for a Special Needs Grants may have the following hardship obligations:

  • a reasonable steps obligation and/or
  • a budgeting activity obligation

Generally, clients must meet any hardship obligations that have been applied to them before they can get additional hardship assistance.

These obligations do not apply to:

Note you must make sure the client is getting their correct entitlement at every interaction with them.

Newborn

When the client is the principal caregiver of a child 12 months of age or younger, you must consider the presence of the newborn when deciding whether to apply hardship obligations.

This includes the principal temporary caregiver of a child for whom Orphans Benefit or Unsupported Childs Benefit is paid.

Multiple obligations

Depending on the client's circumstances at the time, they may have none, one or both hardship obligations applied to them.

For more information see:

Legislation

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For Orphans Benefit or Unsupported Childs Benefit, the principal temporary caregiver is the person who has the primary responsibility for the day-to-day care of the child for a short-term, unknown, or uncertain period, and is not the natural or adoptive parent of the child.