Why Your Family Tax Benefit Stopped and How to Fix It

If your Family Tax Benefit has stopped, the reason is almost always a change in your household that either wasn’t reported in time or was picked up by Services Australia during a routine check. The usual culprits are an income estimate that no longer matches what you actually earned, an outstanding tax return, a child aging out of eligibility or missing study or immunisation requirements, more than six weeks overseas, a drop in your share of care, or a change in your relationship status. Most of these can be sorted out once you know which one applies, though some leave behind a debt that has to be repaid before full payments resume.

Your Income Estimate No Longer Matches Reality

FTB is calculated from the family income estimate you give Services Australia each year, with updates during the year when things change.¹ If your actual income runs well above your estimate, you’re being paid more than you’re entitled to, and eventually your rate is reassessed. If earnings climb high enough, the rate drops to zero and payments cut off.

For Part A, the income free area is $66,722. Above that, your payment reduces by 20 cents in the dollar until you hit the base rate, then a second test at $118,771 reduces the base rate by 30 cents in the dollar until nothing is left.² Part B has a hard ceiling: the primary earner cannot exceed $120,007, and the secondary earner’s free area is $6,935, after which Part B reduces by 20 cents in the dollar.³

Child support counts too. The maintenance income test reduces Part A by 50 cents for every dollar of child support above the Maintenance Income Free Area, which starts at $2,003.85 for a single parent or one member of a couple.²

If your estimate is stale, update it through your Centrelink online account. Setting the figure slightly higher than you expect is safer than under-estimating: an over-estimate simply means the shortfall is paid to you at balancing, while an under-estimate creates a debt.¹

You Haven’t Lodged Your Tax Return

After 30 June, Services Australia balances your FTB by comparing your estimate against the actual income on your tax return. You and your partner both need to either lodge a return or tell the agency you don’t need to, and you have until 30 June of the following financial year to do so.⁴

Miss that deadline and your entire FTB for the year can be raised as a non-lodger debt, even if you would otherwise have been entitled to every dollar. A 75-day grace period follows. If the debt is still outstanding after that, the agency can stop your ongoing instalments entirely.⁵ Being under the tax-free threshold doesn’t get you off the hook; you still need to notify the agency, because silence is treated as non-lodgment.

This is one of the most common reasons FTB stops and one of the easiest to fix. Lodge the return or tell the agency you weren’t required to, wait for the ATO to confirm your income, and balancing can proceed.

Your Child Aged Out or Isn’t Meeting Study Requirements

Part A covers children aged 0 to 15 without study conditions. From 16, the child must be in full-time secondary study with an acceptable study load, or hold an exemption from Services Australia.⁶ If the agency has no record of enrolment on the child’s 16th birthday, payments for that child stop. The upper limit is 19, and payments can also pause at the end of a school year if there’s no indication the child is continuing study the following year.

Disability Exemptions

A child with a physical, psychiatric, intellectual, or learning disability who lacks the capacity to undertake any approved course of study can be permanently exempt from the study requirement, provided you supply appropriate medical evidence.⁷ If FTB stopped on your child’s 16th birthday and this applies, call the Families line to apply.

Part B Has Different Age Rules

Part B generally covers children under 13 (or under 5 for the higher rate). Grandparent carers can receive it up to 18. When your youngest crosses the relevant threshold, Part B can end while Part A continues for the same child.³

Immunisation Records Aren’t Up to Date

Under No Jab, No Pay, children up to age 19 must be fully vaccinated according to the National Immunisation Program Schedule, on an approved catch-up schedule, or have a medical exemption recorded on the Australian Immunisation Register. Conscientious objection is not a valid exemption.⁸

Where a child’s AIR record isn’t current, your Part A fortnightly rate is reduced for that child, and the reduction continues until the records are brought up to date. Often the vaccinations have actually been given but the provider hasn’t uploaded them, which is an administrative fix your GP or immunisation nurse can usually sort out quickly.

A separate rule, the Healthy Start for School check, applies only to families receiving both FTB Part A and an income support payment such as JobSeeker or Parenting Payment. Those families need a health check for a child turning four, reported to Services Australia before the child’s fifth birthday.⁹ If you’re not on income support alongside your FTB, this one doesn’t apply to you.

You’ve Been Overseas More Than Six Weeks

Both Part A and Part B keep paying for up to six weeks while you or your child are outside Australia. After six weeks, payments stop.¹⁰ The clock runs from the day you leave, and payments cut off whether you told the agency about the trip or not. Extensions are possible in specific situations like serious illness abroad, natural disaster, political unrest, or military deployment, but not for extended holidays or wanting to stay longer with family.¹¹ When you’re back in Australia, payments don’t always restart on their own; you may need to contact Services Australia to update your record.

Your Share of Care Has Dropped

You need at least 35% care of a child to get FTB for that child. If a custody change, separation, or new living arrangement takes your share below 35%, FTB for that child stops. Between 14% and 34% you lose FTB but may keep some related benefits like Rent Assistance and a Health Care Card. Below 14%, everything for that child ends.¹² Care is measured in nights per year, so even an informal shift in the pattern can push you across a threshold. Report changes to the Families line promptly; if you don’t, and you’ve been paid on the old percentage, the overpayment becomes a debt.

Your Relationship Status Has Changed

Moving in with a partner adds their income to your assessment, which can push you past the thresholds. Separating usually lowers combined income, but the agency can’t adjust your rate until you tell them. Both people need to notify Services Australia separately when a separation happens. If you’re still under the same roof after separating, each of you needs to complete a “Separated under one roof” form so the agency can decide whether you’re still a couple for payment purposes. Failing to report a relationship change can trigger overpayments, debts, and penalties.¹³

A Debt Is Absorbing Your Payments

Sometimes FTB hasn’t officially stopped; it’s being consumed by debt recovery. After balancing, if you were overpaid, the overpayment is raised as a debt and Services Australia can recover it from several places before you see anything:

Ongoing FTB instalments and any arrears owed to you.
Your end-of-year FTB supplements and top-ups.
Your tax refund, redirected by the ATO to Services Australia.

Offsetting happens regardless of any separate repayment arrangement. If a tax refund offset leaves you in financial hardship, you can ask the ATO to reconsider. Recovery through refund offsetting only pauses for a disaster or emergency event, or while a formal review of the debt is under way.¹⁴

How to Get Payments Restarted

The fix depends on the cause. For income-related cancellations, an updated estimate through your Centrelink online account triggers a reassessment. That estimate has to be lodged before the end of the income year following the year FTB was cancelled; miss that window and Services Australia can’t backdate the reinstatement.¹⁵

For non-lodger debts, lodge the outstanding return or tell the agency you didn’t need to lodge. Once the ATO confirms your income, balancing proceeds. If you’ve been cancelled over more than one financial year, you may need to lodge multiple returns before payments resume.⁵

For immunisation, study, or health-check issues, updating the underlying record generally clears things within a few weeks. Contact your GP to check that vaccinations are recorded on the AIR, or send your child’s enrolment details through myGov. Where FTB has been cancelled outright rather than reduced, you may need to lodge a new claim. Past period claims must be made within 12 months of the end of the relevant income year, with a possible extension to two years in special circumstances.¹⁶

1
Services Australia. Your Family Income Estimate for Family Assistance Payments
2
Services Australia. Income Test for FTB Part A
3
Services Australia. Income Test for Family Tax Benefit Part B
4
Services Australia. Balancing Family Tax Benefit
5
Family Assistance Guide. 4.4.5.20 Income Tax Return Not Lodged
6
Services Australia. Family Tax Benefit Part A Eligibility
7
Family Assistance Guide. 2.1.1.11 Full-Time Study Requirement
8
Federal Register of Legislation. A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999
9
Services Australia. Healthy Start for School Health Check
10
Services Australia. Travel Outside Australia Rules for Family Tax Benefit
11
Family Assistance Guide. 2.1.2.40 FTB Portability
12
Services Australia. How Your Percentage of Care Affects Your Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Payments
13
Services Australia. Updating Your Relationship Status
14
Services Australia. Understanding Your Family Tax Benefit Balancing Outcome
15
Family Assistance Guide. 4.4.4 Reassessment of FTB – Income Support Cancelled
16
Family Assistance Guide. 4.2 Claims for FTB