Principal caregiver

To qualify for Working for Families, you need to be the principal caregiver of a dependent child.

Dependent child

Who is the principal caregiver?

You’re the principal caregiver if you're aged 16 years or over and you’re responsible for the day-to-day care of a dependent child on a permanent basis for at least a third of the time in a 4 month period.

You do not need to be the child’s parent but a child-care institution ─such as a boarding school ─ cannot be a principal caregiver.

Your responsibilities

As a Working for Families customer you must:

• check your information
• tell us about changes to your family situation
• tell us about changes to your income or hours of work
• tell us about changes to your contact details or bank account.

Shared care of a child

In some cases, you can still be the principal caregiver even if you share the care of your child with someone else.

Shared care of a child