This chapter examines how Australia’s Carer Payment (child) policy treats the activities and constituencies of interest in this book and highlights the discourses and norms of care, disability and paid work that underpin this treatment. The policy has limited benefits and many shortcomings for both carers and children with disabilities. Its availability to some carers with the most ‘intense’ care loads does place economic value on the traditionally undervalued activity of care but reinforces the full-time caring role and provides inadequate support for alternatives. Consequently, many of the ‘burdens’ identified by carers are ignored and perhaps exacerbated. Carer Payment (child) treats unpaid care and paid work as largely incompatible activities and does not problematize the unequal gender division of labor or address its consequences for women. Carers’ eligibility assessments are focused on the individual, medical needs of the child, and carers are assumed to be the best people to meet those needs. As a result, the views and preferences of children with disabilities are not sought or expressed, and their broader rights are not considered.

This chapter introduces the first of two case study analyses presented in the book. The case studies explore how the care policy tensions manifest in different policy contexts and demonstrate how the principles might be used to amend specific policies. This chapter describes the history and key features of an Australian care and support policy that prioritizes one activity (unpaid care) over another (paid work) and one constituency (carers) over another (children with disabilities). Carers’ income support has been available to some citizens and permanent residents since the 1980s. Since 1998, Carer Payment (child) – a pension payment administered by Australia’s federal government – has been available to people whose constant care for a child with a severe disability or medical condition prevents them from supporting themselves through paid work. The most recent major reforms to the policy in 2009 introduced a new eligibility test that focused on the ‘care load’ that a child’s medical needs produce for the carer. This extended access to a greater number and wider range of people, although the payment is still only available to those providing constant care and have no, or limited, involvement in paid work.

In light of the many shortcomings of Carer Payment (child) policy described in Chapter 7, this chapter explores the potential of the six care and support rights principles to place the interests and claims of carers and children with disabilities on an even footing and realize their citizenship rights to care and support. Many current restrictions on access to this payment would need to be amended to achieve this, including removing the limitation of eligibility to sole carers with intense, constant care loads, reconsidering the income tests and paid work requirements that limit carers’ paid work options, and expanding the ‘care load’ test’s focus beyond individual, medical needs to incorporate the rights and dignity of children and their carers. Other necessary measures would include ensuring that a variety of care and support services are available for all parties and increasing the availability and appeal of flexible working for men and women. Such changes would constitute a major departure from prevailing policy settings and require reform across multiple areas of policy including social assistance, care and support and employment, but the potential benefits of such changes for a range of people with care and support needs and/or responsibilities are clear.