helicopter_girl

Hi. We're moving to Brisbane in January. We currently receive Child Benefit for both of our children and Disability Living Allowance for our son Jake, who has been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome.

Does anyone know if we would be entitled to the same in Australia, and would Jake have to be assessed again?

I'm also wondering if he'd have to be assessed again, before entering state education: currently he is in mainstream education, without any extra one-to-one help, but obviously it might not be the same over there.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

JAJ

What will be your visa status?

helicopter_girl

We'll have residency via a 175 Visa.

JAJ

Look at http://www.centrelink.gov.au

You should normally be entitled to Family Tax Benefit. Most other payments will have a waiting period for new migrants.

ABCDiamond

Child Benefit, called Family Tax Benefit, will be available to you immediately, however, the Disability Support Pension has a Ten Year qualifying residence requirement.

Family Tax Benefit is calculated based on your Income and your childs ages, and it can be considerable, but could also be nothing, depending on your family income.

example from my info:

quoll

If you dont want him to have any additional support in education then he wont need reassessment. If you do, however, want an IEP and maybe some aide support then you should bring with you evidence of his diagnosis, any psych assessments, adaptive behaviour assessments, skill levels etc. Otherwise, just enrol him in mainstream. There is a residence requirement for the Carer's allowance and if he is high functioning he may not be eligible for it anyway.

helicopter_girl

Thanks for all your help. I think it will depend on the school he goes to on whether he'll need extra help or not: at his current school, his teacher is fantastic, and knows how to cope with him, but at the one before, although they knew all about his condition, he was sent home on average once every 3 weeks! They provided extra one-on-one help, but in a way I think that back-fired. Right now, he's not given any extra care other than going to the 'Dragon Club' once a week (an extra-help club in school time).

Does anyone know how much notice we need to give the agencies over here so they can stop his benefit? He's approved it until 2010, but of course we won't be here so it will have to stop.

Thanks!

viviennef

I think too that its a 2 year wait on some benefits so dont know much about how long you would have to wait for benefits to apply.

I get carers allowance though for my daughter. There are two but with Aspergers I think that you would get the same one as me. I get $50 a week. I also get 5 items of physio/speech or OT free, a bonus every now and again - usually about $1000 a year. You need a doctor to sign off to say that your son has a recognised condition so bringing information with you will really help as most doctors would consider a UK diagnosis as fact.

There is help at school and I think more available in terms of support and therapy than in the UK - Poppy, my little girl has mild cerebral palsy so physically she needs care and associated mild autism like symptoms - doesnt like change etc. I have found the medical system over here very good - I have had to push heaps to get the right treatment but unlike the UK you can usually change the rules a bit if you talk people around and are really keen.

pm me if you need any specific info or want to know more.
Viv

Stitch

The equivilant of DLA here is Carers Allownance which is not means tested and does not come under the two year rule. Carers Payment is another similar thing but is means tested and does come under the two year rule. Carers allowance is approx $100 per fortnight. Not sure about the Payment as we are not eligble for this due to wages. We are not entitled to Mobility as this has a more strict criteria than in the UK. Happy to answer more if you wish to ask here/PM.

Cheers

Ginny