A variety of services and support are available to grandparents that are responsible for raising their grandchild. They exist to assist you as grandparents when experiencing difficulties with lifestyle changes, financial hardships, emotional upheaval, legal difficulties, schooling changes and generation gap.
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: An information resource for relative caregivers’
This publication provides information to help support you in your caring role, for example your legal and financial rights and responsibilities, and practical advice on day-to-day living with children. It also details support and services available to you from the State Government, the Australian Government and non-government organisations.
The publication consists of four booklets:
Booklet 2: Support for Families
Contains information on housing and accommodation, keeping children safe, State Government concessions, children with disabilities and drought assistance.
Booklet 4: Legal Issues
Contains information on the Australian Family Law, Youth Courts, Informal Relative Caregiver’s Statutory Declaration, access to birth certificates, making a Will and applying for a passport for children.
Informal Relative Caregiver’s Statutory Declaration
Introduced by the State Government, the Declaration is a written statement made in the presence of an authorised witness that states that you are informally providing full time care to a relative’s child or young person.
It can be used as evidence to establish your care-giving status. This will assist you to enrol the child in school and work with the child’s school to support the child’s learning, gain consent to medical and dental treatment and access to other State Government supports and services.
Advice on estate planning
As a grandparent raising a grandchild it is natural to wonder what will happen to your grandchild and your assets if something happens to you. This fact sheet has been prepared to provide you with some general information to help you address this.