Vehicle repayments - health and disability

A motor vehicle or other vehicle repayments can be included as an allowable cost where the client or any member of their family, need the vehicle because they suffer a chronic illness or have a disability that requires the use of a motor vehicle for transport.

The maximum weekly allowable cost for vehicle repayments per family is $85.96 (from 1 April 2026).

Note there is no limit to the number of vehicles that can be included in Temporary Additional Support.

If the vehicle was purchased before the client became a beneficiary Temporary Additional Support can only be paid if:

• there is no public transport reasonably available

Note this includes clients who at the time of their application for Temporary Additional Support, are or have been a beneficiary at some point since purchasing the vehicle.

If the vehicle was purchased while the client was a beneficiary Temporary Additional Support can only be paid if:

• there is no public transport reasonably available
• the cost is essential to meet the family's daily living needs
• the cost could not be easily avoided or reduced when the expense was incurred (for example there was no public transport available at the time of purchase)

If a client or any family members are getting Disability Allowance, the total of their Disability Allowance costs contained in SWIFTT will automatically be included as allowable costs for Temporary Additional Support.

If the client or any family members do not qualify for Disability Allowance but have allowable health and disability costs for Temporary Additional Support, you will need to manually add them into the STAWA screen.