How The Program Works

Program Overview

  • What is TILA?
TILA was developed in response to the Youth Pathways Action Plan Taskforce Footprints to the Future Report (available at www.youthpathways.gov.au ) which emphasised the need to improve the provision of support services to young people as they make the transition to independent living. An element of one of the Taskforce's recommendations was a one-off payment to young people leaving care to help defray upfront costs associated with accessing employment, education or accommodation.
Providing the TILA (the Allowance) as part of a young person's transitional plan can help reduce their reliance upon crisis intervention and other community services at a later time. DEEWR administers TILA.
In conjunction with other Australian and State and Territory Government support mechanisms, TILA helps young people who are leaving care to achieve independence and stability, and reach their full potential through enhanced engagement in employment, education, training and community life.
TILA encourages a preventative and early intervention approach, which can help these young people avoid further welfare dependency and homelessness.
  • Target Group
TILA (the Allowance) of $1,500 is available to all young people aged between 15 and 25 years who are preparing to, or have exited, State or Territory based Care and/or informal Care such as: Juvenile Justice; Out of Home Care - including SAAP services; or Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander kinship care arrangements not more than 24 months ago. TILA funds are available to assist a maximum of 2,500 young people each financial year. For further information please view the TILA Guidelines.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for the Allowance, the young person must:
  • Be a permanent Australian resident; and
  • Be aged between 15 and 25 years old; and
  • Be approaching (within 6 weeks of applying) or experiencing an exit from Care or if having already exited Care has done so no more than 24 months prior; and
  • Be subject to one or more Risk Factors for an Unsuccessful Exit from Care; and
  • Not have received TILA assistance before; and
  • Have been in, or currently be in, Care

An explanation of the above criteria is in the Glossary of the TILA Guidelines.

 

What can be paid under the Allowance?
  • Connection to Utilities to assist in the establishment of housing (e.g. phone, electricity and gas)
  • Moving expenses
  • Appliances
  • Whitegoods
  • Furnishings
  • Consumables (e.g. cleaning products)
  • Financial or other counselling
  • Education (e.g. Books, Computer, Computer Software)
  • Transport to undertake studies or employment
  • Bus Tickets, Phone Cards etc

How to apply

Tila Application and Payment Process

  • Referring agencies will complete the necessary Referral Assessment Form and include either Attachment A (Formal Care Order) when claiming under the Formal Care criteria or Attachment B (Centrelink Verification Form) when claiming under the Informal Care criteria. The young person needs to include only one of these Attachments with the Referral Assessment Form depending on which care criteria applications are to be considered under and then return the application to the TILA Officer at SYFS for assessment.
  • Once the application has been approved the referring agency will be asked to either purchase the items (Option 1) and at their earliest convenience forward receipts in the young person's name with a completed TILA Payment Form including their agency's ABN number, contact person and postal address information to SYFS and SYFS will reimburse the agency or provide 30 day quotes (Option 2) in the young person's name with a completed TILA Payment Form, if not already included at the time the application was submitted. The agency must ensure each supplier's information is correct on the TILA Payment Form and must include the supplier's name, ABN, address and total amount. If the amounts of the suppliers in total exceed $1,500 it is the agency's responsibility to reduce one or more of the supplier totals so together they do not exceed the maximum allowed of $1,500.

    Southern Youth and Family Services will endeavour to process the application and payments as quickly as possible. SYFS has developed a guide to efficiently assess a reasonable price range for particular items in order to speed up the assessment process and hopefully will avoid the need for quotes for regularly requested items. Where the price exceeds the guideline or is an unusual request a quote will be required.

    For further information please contact the TILA Officer on 1300 761 961 (National) / 02 4225 7059 (Local) or Fax: 02 4228 4613 or tila@syfs.org.au . We look forward to assisting you in the future.

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