QLD Disaster Recovery Payment 2024

A lump sum payment to help people seriously affected by the south east Queensland severe storms and flooding that started in December 2023 and continued into January 2024.

City of Gold Coast declared suburbs

You have until 3 July 2024 to make a claim for the following declared suburbs in the City of Gold Coast:

Arundel
Biggera Waters
Coombabah
Coomera
Gaven
Guanaba
Helensvale
Hollywell
Labrador
Maudsland
Mudgeeraba
Nerang
Oxenford
Pacific Pines
Paradise Point
Runaway Bay
Tallai
Upper Coomera
Wongawallan.

City of Logan declared suburbs

You have until 3 July 2024 to make a claim for the following declared suburbs in the City of Logan:

Cedar Creek
Cedar Grove
Cedar Vale
Flagstone
Jimboomba
Mundoolun
Tamborine.

Scenic Rim Region declared suburbs

You have until 3 July 2024 to make a claim for the following declared suburbs in the Scenic Rim Region:

Tamborine
Tamborine Mountain.

What it is

The Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment (AGDRP) is a lump sum payment to help you if you’ve been seriously affected by the south east Queensland severe storms and flooding that started in December 2023 and continued into January 2024.

You may be eligible if you’re claiming for a declared suburb for this disaster.AGDRP is not for minor damage or inconvenience. Its purpose is to help you with immediate costs if you’ve been affected by one or more of the following:

the disaster caused major damage to your home or a major asset or assets that you own at your home
you were seriously injured
you’re the immediate family member of an Australian citizen or resident who died or is missing.

You can choose to get this payment in 2 parts.

If you lost income as a direct result of this disaster, you may also be eligible for Disaster Recovery Allowance. If you’re eligible, you can get both AGDRP and Disaster Recovery Allowance.

Who can get it

You must meet eligibility rules to get Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment (AGDRP).

To get this payment, you must meet all of the following. You’re:

an Australian resident or meet other residence rules
16 or older, or under 16 and getting an eligible payment at the time of this disaster
seriously affected in a declared suburb.

Seriously affected means that you or an eligible child you care for must have experienced one or more of the following because of the declared disaster:

major damage to your principal place of residence
major damage to a major asset or assets that you own at your principal place of residence
you were seriously injured
you’re the immediate family member of an Australian citizen or resident who died or is missing.

You can only get AGDRP once for this disaster.

How much you can get

The Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment is a lump sum payment.

If you’re eligible you’ll get:

$1,000 per adult
$400 for each child younger than 16.

This payment is not taxable and doesn’t need to be included in your tax return.

How to claim

There are 3 steps to claim Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment.

Before you start claiming, check who can get it.When claiming, you need to make sure the information you give us is true and correct. You must base your claim on your actual circumstances.

If you have a Centrelink online account that’s linked to myGov, sign in and start your claim now.

If you don’t have these set up, you’ll need to follow these steps.

Steps to claim Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment

1. Get ready to claim

You can claim online.

If you need help claiming you can call us on the Emergency information line. If you need an interpreter, let us know and we’ll arrange one for you.

If you want to speak to someone in your language, call our Multilingual Phone Service.

If you’re an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australian, you can also call and speak to our Indigenous call centre for help.

You can have someone deal with us on your behalf. This is called a correspondence nominee. They can call the Emergency information line to submit a claim for you. They cannot submit an online claim on your behalf.

If you’re a member of a couple you can both claim this payment. You and your partner must make separate claims.

You can claim if you’re the immediate family member of an Australian citizen or resident who died or is missing. But, you can’t claim on behalf of a person who has died, or their estate.

To claim online, you need a Centrelink online account linked to myGov.

If you don’t have a myGov account, you’ll need to set it up online.

If your Centrelink online account isn’t linked to myGov, you can prove who you are through myGov to link Centrelink.

South East Queensland Severe Storms and Flooding, December 2023 to January 2024 support - Services Australia

2. Link Centrelink to your myGov account

Sign into myGov and select View and link services, then select Centrelink to link it to your myGov account. How you do this will depend on if you’ve claimed a payment from us before.

If you’ve claimed a payment before

If you’ve claimed a payment before, you can use your Centrelink Customer Reference Number (CRN) to link Centrelink to myGov. You’ll also need to answer some personal questions.

If you don’t know your CRN or can’t answer the personal questions using your CRN, select No to Do you have or know your CRN?

You’ll need to prove your identity online, using myGov. Follow the same instructions for ‘If you haven’t claimed a payment before’.

If you haven’t claimed a payment before

If you haven’t claimed a payment from us before, you’ll need to prove your identity online using myGov.

You’ll need to enter some personal information and details from 2 acceptable identity documents and your Medicare card. Once you prove your identity, we’ll link Centrelink to your myGov account.

3. Make your claim

Now your accounts are set up, sign in and start your claim.

Then follow these steps:

Select Centrelink.
Select Payments and claims from the menu, then Claims, then Make a claim.
Select Help in an emergency.
Select Apply for Disaster Recovery Payment and answer the eligibility and claim questions.
Submit your claim.

Our Centrelink online account guide on how to claim the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment will step you through this process.

4. After you claim

We’ll let you know if you’ve successfully submitted your claim.

To track the progress of your application online, sign in to myGov and select Make a claim or view claim status.

You can also use the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.

We’ll try to process your claim as quickly as possible. We may call you to ask for more information. We appreciate your patience at this time.

We’ll let you know the outcome of your claim in one of the following ways:

SMS
myGov inbox message
letter.

If you want to discuss the outcome of your claim, you can call us on the Emergency information line.

It’s often seen the best come out in people and communities that are affected by a natural disaster. Most people want to do the right thing and help. But there are others who try to take advantage of this stressful time.