Farm Household Allowance

The Farm Household Allowance (FHA) is an Australian government program designed to provide financial assistance to farmers and their families who are experiencing financial hardship. It's aimed at helping eligible farmers meet their basic household needs and cover essential expenses. 

• If you qualify for $1 of jobseeker you get the equivlent of the full job seeker amount.
• It includes the ability to access targted funding (activity supplement upto $10,000 in total), this can be used for a variety of things including obtaining proffessional advice and training e.g. Artificial Insemination.
• The assets test is more generous  ($5.5m st the time of writing) 
• There is no job seeking requirement (unless it is an agreed activity)
• There is a seperate phone line with signficantly less waiting time than the job seeker line.

To get the Farm Household Allowance you must contribute significant labour and capital to a farm.:

• be a farmer (or partner of a farmer)
• have a farm that has the prospect of being profitable
• meet the income and assets test limits
• meet mutual obligation requirements,

The allowance is meant to provide temporary relief for up to four cumulative years, with the aim of assisting you to be financialy independent during this time.

Read more about who can get it on The Services Australia website

Whilst there are Mutual Obligation Requirements, what you need to do to keep your payment also is a little different from Jobseeker.

You will be assigned a case officer, generally you will meet with them every two to three months which may be over the phone with an occassional video or face to face meeting. During this meeting you agree 2 or more activities you will work on before the next meeting. You have a role in setting them and they will vary based on farm needs, e.g. complete a budget/cash flow, attend training, search for grants etc.

Other obligations include updating services Australia

• you change or correct your name
• you change your address
• you sell your principal home
• your income changes
• your combined personal and farm assets are above $5.5 million
• you don’t have to lodge a tax return
• you get a partner or separate from your partner
• your workload changes

We are going to research and provide information on other types of assistance over the next few weeks. Follow us on facebook or come back and check out our blog, over the next few weeks we will be providing information on other farm specific assistance.