Who qualifies for Rent Assistance
Rent Assistance has a short eligibility test, and every part of it must be met. You must receive an eligible payment, pay rent for your principal home in Australia, pay more than the threshold for your family situation, and meet the residence and living-arrangement rules for your main payment. Failing any one part means no Rent Assistance, even if the other parts are met.
The first test: an eligible payment
Rent Assistance is an add-on payment. It is payable to a person who receives an income support payment, or who receives more than the base rate of Family Tax Benefit Part A. It is also payable in the situation where a person would receive Family Tax Benefit Part A except that they have care of a regular care child. ABSTUDY Living Allowance is another payment that can carry Rent Assistance. Examples of income support payments that can carry Rent Assistance include the Age Pension, JobSeeker Payment, Disability Support Pension, Carer Payment, Parenting Payment, Youth Allowance, Austudy, Farm Household Allowance, and Special Benefit. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive: what matters is whether your own payment is one that Services Australia treats as able to include Rent Assistance.
The payment comes first
If you do not receive an eligible payment, there is no Rent Assistance to assess, however high your rent is. Conversely, receiving an eligible payment does not guarantee Rent Assistance: your rent must still be above the threshold, and your accommodation must count as rent under the rules on the what counts as rent page.
The second test: rent for your principal home
The rent must be paid, on a regular basis, by you or your partner, as a condition of occupying your principal home in Australia. A one-off payment, or a payment for a home you do not live in, does not meet this test. The home can be a house, a flat, a room in shared accommodation, a caravan, or another dwelling, provided the arrangement fits the definition of rent explained on the what counts as rent page. People in retirement villages, community housing, and some other accommodation types can qualify, subject to conditions, while other arrangements are excluded outright.
When Rent Assistance is not payable
Services Australia does not pay Rent Assistance in several clear situations. It is not payable if your rent is at or below the threshold for your family situation. It is not payable if you pay government rent to a state or territory housing authority, which is the rent paid by most people in public housing, because that rent is already subsidised. It is not payable if you are assessed as a homeowner living in the home you own, or if you are a homeowner temporarily absent from your principal home and you do not meet the rules for Rent Assistance for your temporary accommodation. It is not payable if you live in an Australian Government subsidised bed in an accredited aged care home, if you provide services in exchange for free accommodation, or if you pay rent as part of a rent-to-buy scheme. Mortgage repayments are not rent, so a homeowner paying off a mortgage does not receive Rent Assistance for those repayments.
Residence and household rules
You must also meet the residence rules for your main payment, and your household details on record must be correct. Who you live with, whether you have a partner, and whether you have dependent children all change the threshold and maximum that apply to you, so an out-of-date household record can produce the wrong amount in either direction. A change in who shares your home is therefore a reportable change, covered on the reporting changes page. If you are unsure whether your arrangement counts, the safest step is to give Services Australia the full facts of the arrangement and let it assess the case, rather than assuming an answer in either direction.
Two examples from everyday Australian renting
A pensioner in Hobart who receives the Age Pension and rents a flat privately for $420.00 a fortnight meets the payment test and the rent test, and the rent is above the $157.80 single threshold, so Rent Assistance can be assessed. A worker in Brisbane who rents privately but receives no income support payment and no Family Tax Benefit Part A above the base rate does not meet the payment test, so no Rent Assistance is payable, even if the rent is very high. The difference between those two cases is the eligible payment, not the size of the rent.