Highlights
- Extreme flooding continues to pose "life-threatening" risks to areas of Queensland and northern New South Wales.
- Across the southeast of the state, thousands of homes have now been evacuated and thousands of schools closed.
- A one-off lump-sum payment of $1,000 per adult and $400 per dependent child is available through the mygov website
Amidst massive clean-up efforts in the wake of devastating flood and storm events in both Queensland and New South Wales, it could be many months and even years before residents fully recover and rebuild or replace homes and businesses.
To be eligible for the Disaster Recovery Payment, you must have been seriously injured in the floods; be an immediate family member of someone who died or who is missing due to the floods; and/or have sustained major damage to your home.
To qualify as having sustained major damage, the dwelling must have:
- Been destroyed or must be demolished
- Been declared structurally unsound
- Had major damage to the interior
- Had its interior exposed to the elements
- Had sewage get inside, and/or
- Had a major asset or assets damaged on or in the property.
People have until August 28, 2022, to make a claim if they are in Queensland or September 1 if they are in NSW.
Eligible claimants must live in one of the or the .
The payment can be accessed by following the steps below:
- Sign in to myGov and select Centrelink in your linked services. Importantly, you will need to make sure Centrelink is linked to your myGov account by using a Centrelink Customer Reference Number (CRN) or, if you don’t have a CRN, you can prove your identity by supplying official documents.
- Select “Make a Claim or View Claim Status”.
- Scroll to “Help in an Emergency” and select “Get Started”.
- Select “Apply for Disaster Recovery Payment”.
- Select “Begin”.
- Answer the eligibility and claim questions, making sure you have photographs, documentation and/or other material you can attach by way of evidence of flood damage.
- Press “Submit” to lodge your claim.
- You can click the “Make a Claim or View Claim Status” button from the initial Centrelink landing page of the myGov website to see how your payment is progressing in the upcoming days and weeks.
