Fill Out Details of Your Child's Care Arrangements (FA012) Online
Details of your child's care arrangements form
Services Australia
Tells Services Australia about a child's care arrangements so family assistance and child support are assessed correctly.
Reviewed July 2026
How it works
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Open the form. The official PDF loads straight into the editor, no download needed first.
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Fill it out in the editor. Click anywhere to type, add checkmarks and place your signature.
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Form FA012 tells Services Australia about the care arrangements for a child. The share of care each person provides is a core input to both family assistance and child support, so the agency uses this form to work out, or re check, each carer's percentage of care when arrangements start, change, or are disputed.
You can fill out FA012 directly in the Universal PDF editor. Record who cares for the child and when, including any written arrangements or patterns of care, then download the completed PDF to sign and lodge. Keeping care details current helps both family assistance and child support reflect the actual arrangement.
What is Form FA012 used for
The form collects the practical detail of a child's care: who the carers are, how the child's time is divided between them, when the arrangement started or changed, and whether it follows a court order, parenting plan, or informal agreement. From this, Services Australia determines each person's care percentage.
Care percentages matter because they feed directly into family assistance calculations and child support assessments. When actual care differs from what a written arrangement says, the form lets you explain what is really happening so the assessment can be based on the right facts.
Who completes Form FA012
Parents and other carers complete it when they claim family assistance, when a child support case starts, or when care changes after either is in place. Where care is shared or disputed, Services Australia may ask each carer to provide their own account of the arrangements.
Grandparents and other non parent carers who look after a child can also be asked to complete it, since their share of care affects their own and the parents' assessments.
How to fill out Form FA012
Have any parenting plan, court order, or care diary on hand before you start, then:
- Enter your details and reference numbers so the form links to your family assistance or child support records.
- Identify the child and each person who provides care.
- Describe the pattern of care, such as the regular weekly or fortnightly routine and how holidays are shared.
- Give the date the arrangement started or changed.
- Note whether the arrangement is set out in a court order, parenting plan, or written agreement, and attach a copy if you have one.
- Sign and date the declaration before lodging.
How to submit it
Lodge the completed form and any supporting documents with Services Australia, generally by uploading them through your Centrelink online account via myGov or posting them to the address shown in the form's instructions. You can also update care details directly in your online account or by phone in many cases.
Report care changes promptly. Assessments are adjusted from the dates the agency is told about, so delays in reporting can lead to adjustments or overpayments that later need correcting.
Frequently asked questions
Often, yes. Where care is shared or the carers disagree about the arrangement, Services Australia may ask each carer for their own account before deciding the care percentages.
Services Australia looks at the amount of time the child is in each person's care over a set period, usually based on the regular pattern of nights and days, and converts it into a percentage used in family assistance and child support calculations.
Tell Services Australia what is actually happening. The rules deal with disputed and changed care specifically, and the form lets you set out the real arrangement alongside any written one.
As soon as possible after the change. Prompt reporting keeps both family assistance and child support assessments accurate and reduces the risk of adjustments later.
In many cases, yes. Care details can often be updated through your Centrelink online account via myGov or by phone. The paper form suits situations where the agency asks for full written details.
Related forms
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This form is reproduced from official Australian Government sources, © Commonwealth of Australia, and where applicable is used under a Creative Commons Attribution licence. Universal PDF is not affiliated with or endorsed by any Australian government body; always confirm you have the current version on the official site.