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Refugees and people seeking asylum often need help when they come to Australia. This page provides you with information about money you can get from the government. In Australia, most payments are made by the Australian Government.
Your visa and money
The Australian Government gives money for different reasons. This is usually called ‘social security’. There are different kinds of payments (sometimes called ‘benefits’) and each payment has rules about who can get money.
People who come to Australia on a refugee or humanitarian visa get permanent visas. They can get payments mostly in the same way as other Australians. This page only provides information about payments that are special for refugees or people seeking asylum.
Refugees who have a temporary protection visa (Temporary Protection Visa or Safe Haven Enterprise Visa) cannot get most kinds of payments. The main payment they can get is Special Benefit.
People seeking asylum, who are still waiting for the government to recognise them as refugees, get the least help. They may be able to get money through the Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS) program. It is getting very hard, however, to get money on this program.
The Australian Government has a tool that can help you find the payments you can get. This will be most useful if you have a permanent visa.
Information in your language
Translated information
The Australian Government can give you information about your payments in different languages.
The information that we link to on these pages are translated in different languages. You can also look up all the information the Australian Government has on services by language.
This page provides information about government services and payments in your language.
If someone is helping you, they can also see all the information that they can get for your language on this page.
The Refugee Council also has a database where you can find all the information for refugees on this website. You can search by language and by topic.
Talking to someone in your language
If you want to talk to someone in your language about your payments, you can call the Multilingual Phone Service (Monday to Friday, 8am-5pm).
Call the Multilingual Phone Service (131 202)
If you need to talk someone about Medicare or Child Support payments, you should call TIS National (Monday to Friday, 8.30am-4.45pm).
Other help
The Australian Government has a video that tells you about the services it offers to people who prefer to speak a language other than English. You can watch this video in different languages.
You can also listen to find out these services.
You can also get help if you need help hearing or speaking to someone.
