Low income health care card : Who is eligible for a Low Income Health Care Card
Who can get a card
To get a Low Income Health Care Card your income needs to be below the income test limit. You don’t need to pass an assets test.
Children on your card
If your child’s name is on your card you may be able to use it for their expenses.
We can put your dependent child on your card if either:
- you’re their main carer
- they live with you for at least 2 nights every fortnight.
They must be younger than 19 if you’re supporting them while they study.
How to claim
Complete the following steps to claim a Low Income Health Care Card. Before you start, check if you can get it.
Steps to claim a Low Income Health Care Card
Make your claim If you can claim online
If your Centrelink account is linked to myGov you can apply online.
To do this:
- Sign in to myGov.
- Select Make a claim or view claim status, then Make a claim.
- Select Concession Cards and follow the prompts to complete your claim.
Get ready to claim
The easiest way to claim is online. If you have a correspondence nominee they can also claim for you online.
To claim online, you need a Centrelink online account linked to myGov. If you have a nominee they also need to have their own myGov account.
If you don’t have a myGov account or a Centrelink online account, you’ll need to set them up.
You’ll need to get your supporting documents ready to help answer some of the questions in the claim.
You may need to prove your identity with us before you start your claim.
If you have a partner who’s also eligible for a card, they’ll need to submit their own online claim.
If you can’t claim online
If you can’t claim a Low Income Health Care Card online, you can either:
- call us on the Youth and students line
- go to a service centre.
Track your claim
After you submit your claim online, you’ll get a receipt telling you:
- the ID number of your claim
- the date we estimate your claim will be complete
- a link to track its progress.
To track the progress of your claim online, sign in to myGov and select Make a claim or view claim status.
You can also do this on the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.
We’ll send a message to your myGov Inbox to let you know the result of your application. If you don’t get electronic letters, we’ll send you a letter in the mail.
If we need more details we’ll ask you for them.
If you think we’ve made a mistake you can ask us to review our decision.