Introduction to Hardship Assistance

Work and Income delivers hardship assistance to people who have insufficient income and assets to meet specified and necessary costs of living from their own resources. People with a low income from employment, as well as people receiving a benefit or pension from Work and Income, may be eligible to receive this assistance.

Hardship assistance may be paid as:

• an ongoing payment (Temporary Additional Support or a Special Benefit) to people whose outgoings exceed their income on an ongoing basis, or
• one-off payments to meet specific essential expenses.

Hardship assistance provided as lump sums may be:

• paid to the client, or to another person or organisation who provides goods or services to the client
• recoverable or non-recoverable (clients are required to repay recoverable assistance back to Work and Income).

Trends in the use of hardship assistance are affected by changes in overall incomes and costs faced by individual families. Since October 2004, the introduction and expansion of the Working for Families package has contributed to a decrease in the utilisation of hardship assistance by families with children. This has occurred as levels of assistance available for childcare costs (eg Childcare Subsidy, OSCAR Subsidy) have risen.