The Australian Government helps individuals and communities recover from disasters with financial support. The type of help available depends on the impacts of the natural disaster.
We help eligible individuals with the:
-
Disaster Recovery Payment
This is a one-off, non-means tested payment of AUD1000 for eligible adults and AUD400 for eligible children affected by a major disaster either in Australia or overseas. -
Disaster Recovery Allowance
This is a short-term income support payment to help individuals who show that the disaster directly impacted their income.
We also provide financial support to state and territory governments in
joint cost sharing arrangements for clean up and recovery.
See
DisasterAssist website for updates about the current bushfire disaster, how to get help and how to provide assistance. We will update this site with all the information you need about what the Government is doing to help individuals, communities, businesses and local governments to recover from these bushfires.
New Zealanders living in Australia
Where the Australian Government has made disaster recovery payments available, we may provide a similar payment to eligible New Zealand special category visa (subclass 444) holders residing in Australia who have been directly impacted by a major disaster.
This includes:
- the ex-gratia Disaster Recovery Allowance (ex-gratia DRA) for short term income support
- the ex-gratia Disaster Recovery Payment (ex-gratia DRP) for a one-off, non means tested payment
These payments are delivered in line with the conditions and eligibility of DRA and DRP under the Social Security Act 1991.
Learn more at
GrantConnect.
Emergency Response Fund
The Emergency Response Fund (ERF) was established on the commencement of the Emergency Response Fund Act 2019 on 12 December 2019.
The ERF allows the Australian Government to draw up to $200 million in any given year, beyond what is already available to fund emergency response and natural disaster recovery and preparedness, where it determines the existing recovery and resilience-building programs are insufficient to provide an appropriate response to natural disasters.
From 2019-20, the Australian Government will be able to draw on the ERF subject to the following limits:
- $150 million available each financial year to fund emergency response and recovery following natural disasters in Australia that have a significant or catastrophic impact
- $50 million each financial year to build resilience to, prepare for or reduce the risk of future natural disasters, and build the long-term sustainability of communities that are at risk of being affected by a future natural disaster.
See: Emergency Response Fund guidelines
