Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Social Security Amendment (Improved Child to Adult Transfer for Carer Payment and Carer Allowance) Bill 2022. I want to take this opportunity to speak to the impact of the proposed changes to the child to adult transfer process for many families in my electorate of Mayo.

Mount Barker in my electorate is one of the fastest growing centres in South Australia, attracting a growing number of families, some of whom are caring for children and young with disability. I've heard from some of these families about anomalies in the rules under the Social Security Act 1991. At present, parents and carers of children receiving a carers payment or allowance who apply for transfer to the adult payment through the adult disability assessment tool, who apply on time but do not qualify, may lose payment when the person receiving care turns 16 or soon after. However, others who do not apply for the assessment on time continue to be paid until the person reaches 16 years and three months. Additionally, carers qualified for a healthcare card who do apply on time may lose access to their cards as soon as the person receiving care turns 16 years old rather than three months later if they no longer qualify.

Under this bill, all carer payment and carer allowance recipients will remain qualified for payments under child related qualification provisions and for the healthcare card until the person turns 16 years and three months. The government's stated aim is to remove any incentive to delay engagement with the application process and to provide for a more equitable process. Importantly, carers will also be notified earlier, 15 years and six months rather than 15 years and nine months, to provide more lead-in time to apply for the transfer to the adult carer payment.

The government also advises that Services Australia will better support implementation by streamlining the process and communicating more clearly so that carers understand what is needed of them. I am particularly interested in this part. Last year, I heard from a constituent, a single mum, whose husband had sadly passed away, leaving her with two young children, one of whom had significant intellectual disabilities and health issues. My constituent stated to me that she completed and returned the adult disability assessment tool in the month of her child's 16th birthday when she received the necessary paperwork from Centrelink. Her child carers payment was cancelled three months later, and she then received a request from Centrelink for additional information, which she supplied. However, both her child carers payment and healthcare card were cancelled. This mum of two said that she tried to make contact more than 20 times and was put on hold for several hours each time, waiting to speak to someone to get help. She said she was left at her wits end by the whole process.

This is the real human impact of us having a system that, I believe, is deliberately designed to make life harder for people. Her focus needed to be on caring for her family, not on 20 phone calls to Centrelink. So I support this bill that addresses the anomalies and urge the government to deliver on promised improvements in the process in place of families, who are doing their absolute best in the most difficult of circumstances. We really can do so much better.

Centrelink is an adversarial system. It's deliberately made to be hard. We know these families. They're not lying. They're not trying to get away with anything. They're just receiving, if they receive a Centrelink payment, the absolute basics that actually don't even cover the necessities anymore. I urge the government to make it easier for families with children with disabilities, children who are transitioning to becoming adults, and let's make it a service system; it's called Services Australia, so let's make it a service system and not a system that undermines and grinds people down and makes them give up.

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