Services Australia

On 9 May 2023, the Australian Government announced the Disability Worker COVID-19 Leave Grant to support disability workers who deliver close personal support to NDIS participants, contract COVID-19 and have insufficient sick leave available to them.

NDIS providers that pay eligible staff leave when they have a COVID-19 infection and insufficient sick leave, will be reimbursed at a rate of $450 per worker where the worker has lost at least eight hours but less than 20 hours of work, and $750 per worker where the worker has lost more than 20 hours of work. Eligibility will include registered and unregistered NDIS providers and sole traders who deliver specified close personal supports to participants.

The grant will provide support towards the costs associated with leave from 1 April 2023 to 31 December 2023. Affected workers should retain evidence of their illness.

The Disability Worker COVID-19 Leave Grant replaces the High-Risk Settings Pandemic Payment and matches funding available to aged care workers.

It is important to remain alert to the continued risk of COVID-19 in the community. This grant has been designed to protect those most at-risk, but there are many ways to help ensure the safety of others, including staying home when unwell, ensuring adequate ventilation in indoor spaces, and practicing COVID-safe behaviours.

For more information, go to www.dss.gov.au/ covidleavegrant

Age Pension age is changing on 1 July

If you were born on or after 1 January 1957, you must be 67 years to be eligible for Age Pension. You can submit your claim in the 13 weeks before you reach Age Pension age.

If you get a Centrelink payment or pay or receive Child Support, you should check if you need to lodge a tax return.

If you’re registered to pay or receive child support, you need to lodge a tax return. If your partner has a child support assessment, they need to lodge one too.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has a tool on their website to help you decide if you need to lodge a tax return. From 1 July 2023, check if you need to lodge a tax return this year using the ATO’s Do I need to lodge a tax return? tool.

Your tax return information will pre-fill by late July

Once all your information pre-fills in myTax, you won’t need to get a Centrelink Payment Summary to lodge your tax return.

If you need a Medicare Entitlement Statement (MES) at tax time to claim the Medicare levy exemption, you can apply online.

You can apply for a MES using the online MES dashboard through your myGov account.

To access the MES dashboard, you’ll need to link the Individual Healthcare Identifiers (IHI) service to your myGov account.

You can use your MES dashboard to:

• apply for a statement

• track your application

• upload documents, if required

• download and print statements.

When there’s an update in your MES dashboard, you get either an SMS, email or letter in the post.