WDHR and Secretary, Department of Social Services (Social services second review)

This matter concerned an application for carer allowance made by the Applicant in relation to her dependent child. The Applicant's claim, lodged on 1 October 2018, was initially rejected by Services Australia on 15 November 2018, a decision subsequently affirmed by an Authorised Review Officer (ARO) on 14 June 2019. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) affirmed the ARO's decision on 27 November 2019, despite adding points to the qualifying rating score. The Applicant then applied to the present Tribunal for a review of the AAT's decision, with an extension of time being granted.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the Applicant qualified for carer allowance as at 1 October 2018. This required determining if the Applicant had a "qualifying rating of intense" under section 953(1)(e)(ii) of the *Social Security Act 1991* (Cth). Specifically, the Tribunal had to ascertain whether the score for the Disability Care Load Assessment (Child) Determination 2010 (Cth) (DCLA Determination) questionnaire was 85 or more, and whether the score on the professional questionnaire was greater than zero.

The Tribunal noted that the Respondent accepted that most criteria for carer allowance were met, with the sole issue being section 953(1)(e). While the Child had been diagnosed with severe allergies, asthma, and constipation, these conditions were not listed in Schedule 3 of the DCLA Determination, meaning section 953(1)(e)(i) was not satisfied. Therefore, the claim could only succeed if the "intense" rating under section 953(1)(e)(ii) was met. The professional questionnaire score was accepted as being greater than zero. However, the Applicant's score on the DCLA questionnaire was less than 85 points.

Consequently, the Tribunal found that the Applicant did not achieve the required "intense" rating and thus did not meet the qualification criteria for carer allowance for the claim lodged on 1 October 2018. The Tribunal affirmed the reviewable decision, which was the AAT's decision of 27 November 2019, upholding the rejection of the Applicant's claim.