Child leaves young person's care

When the last child of a young person aged 16 to 19 leaves their care, the Parental Assistance Test starts to apply. This includes when the client or their partner stops getting one of these payments for a child:

• Foster Care Allowance
• Orphans Benefit
• Unsupported Childs Benefit

The young person must meet the Parental Assistance Test to keep getting Jobseeker Support Student Hardship.

Note if the client and their partner are both aged 16 to 19, the Parental Assistance Test applies to each person individually.

MSD must do a mandatory review to determine if the young person meets the Parental Assistance Test from the effective date of the change. The effective date is the:

• child exclusion date, if the child was included in Jobseeker Support Student Hardship or
• date the client or their partner stopped getting Foster Care Allowance, Orphans Benefit or Unsupported Childs Benefit