NSW Unregistered Adoption to Biological Mother's Sister - Eligible for Centrelink Assistance?

[Chris Sopiteni]

Hi, thanks for your time. This will be quite a read so please take your time.

I am 19 years old. When I was 3 months old, my birth parents gave me to my birth mother's single sister to raise as her own son. As I grew up, I was told that I wasn't legally adopted. This would cause a lot of confusion. As a legal child of my birth family, I could not be eligible for any government assistance, as I was caring for my ill mother, who was on a disability support pension, with her parents at home. This was because my birth family were over the means for Centrelink and that I was 'still living at home'.

My grandmother passed in '13 and mother in '14, my grandfather is in a nursing home. I now want to study, and I'm eligible for government assistance if it were according to my past circumstances. Today, I live with my birth family although I don't regard them as my parents. I want to ask if there is any possibility of being eligible for assistance under Centrelink in this situation.

Thank you for your help.

 

[sammy01]

Look, you could make an application for Centrelink. They will knock you back. You then appeal the decision, and I reckon you'll lose. But then you can take it to the administrative appeals tribunal. If you can establish in the tribunal that Centrelink made a mistake because they failed to fully comprehend the complexity of the situation then the tribunal might overturn the decision made by Centrelink.

The reason I'd recommend this course of action is it will cost you $0. Will it work? I'm inclined to say no, especially since you do have people looking after you and those people are your biological parents.

The other option is seeking legal advice, but at about $500 per hour to just talk to a solicitor. I reckon the conversation with the solicitor would be a waste of time especially given the advice from the solicitor might be that you've got nothing, as in Australia there are no provisions in family law to divorce your parents.

If you were not living with your biological parents and never had anything to do with them, then maybe my suggestion would be different...

Why can't you study and continue living with your biological parents until you can get yourself some work and then move into shared accommodation, etc?

 

[Chris Sopiteni]

I was trying to avoid any lengthy method, as it would make sense I just find a job and save.

Basically, I can't afford to pay for my studies and I don't want any help from my biological parents. I can now see that the issue at hand is personal.

Thanks for your help sammy01, means more than you think.