Apply for a Hardship Certificate

Under the Resilient Retrofit and Home Raising programs, you will need to co-contribute on a dollar-for-dollar basis for works above the threshold amounts ($50,000 for Resilient Retrofit and $150,000 for Home Raising).

In cases of genuine financial hardship, you can apply to have your co-contribution waived.

Note: As co-contribution is not available under the expanded Home Raising program – including demolition, rebuild or relocate – you can’t apply for a Hardship Certificate for these works.

How to apply for a Hardship Certificate

Check your eligibility for a Hardship Certificate.
Submit your application for funding under the Resilient Homes Fund through the QRIDA portal. You must lodge your funding application before you can submit your Hardship Certificate request.
Provide evidence of each registered homeowner’s eligibility.
Download and complete the Hardship Certificate application form (PDF, 328.3 KB)
Email your completed form and supporting evidence to RHF-HardshipRequests@epw.qld.gov.au.

We will email you if we need more information to assess your application. You should get the outcome of your application within 10 working days of submitting all required materials.

If you need help applying for a Hardship Certificate:

email: RHF-HardshipRequests@epw.qld.gov.au
phone: (07) 3007 4485 and select option 2, available Monday to Friday 9am-5pm

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for a Hardship Certificate, all homeowners (as listed on the property title) must show evidence of meeting one of these criteria:

You are in a low-income bracket. *
You have a financial hardship agreement in place with your lender.
You are receiving or have one of these:
- Age pension
- Carer Payment
- Disability Support Pension
- Job Seeker Payment
- Youth Allowance
- Parenting Payment Single
- Low Income Health Care Card
- Veteran Gold Card
- Commonwealth Seniors Health Care Card.
You have other extenuating circumstances.

* ‘Low income’ is based on the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS). It is assessed on the total income of all registered homeowners when lodging their RHF funding application.

Household income limits

These are the income limits for registered homeowners between 1 May 2024 and 30 April 2025.

Household type	Gross income limit
1 adult (no children)	$61,322
2 adults (no children)	$84,782
3 adults (no children)	$108,242
4 adults (no children)	$131,702
Sole parent with 1 child	$84,841
Sole parent with 2 children	$105,184
Sole parent with 3 children	$125,527
Couple with 1 child	$105,125
Couple with 2 children	$125,468
Couple with 3 children	$145,811

To calculate eligibility for other household types, use these limits:

First adult: $61,322
First adult (if sole parent): $64,498
Each additional adult: $23,460
Each child: $20,343

Definitions

Gross yearly income: the amount of money you receive before tax.
Children: a person under 18 years old and financially dependent on you. If they are under 18 years old but financially independent, they are considered an adult.

Extenuating circumstance

To be eligible under the extenuating circumstance criteria, you must be able to show that your circumstance:

is outside of your control
can reasonably be considered to have been unforeseen
directly and significantly impacts your ability to co-contribute to the costs of completing your resilience works.

Examples include:

loss of employment (due to factors beyond your control)
significant personal/family circumstances affecting your ongoing financial status (e.g. victims of crime or domestic and family violence, etc.)
serious illness significantly affecting your financial situation.

Note: Regular financial commitments are not considered an extenuating or unforeseen circumstance.

You need to provide independent supporting evidence of your extenuating circumstance as part of your application.

Supporting evidence

You must submit supporting documents for each homeowner from this list.

Important: Homeowners must remove their tax file number (TFN) from all documents.

Criteria	Evidence required (provide as many as possible)
Household low income (includes all homeowners)	4 consecutive weeks of payslips up to the date of Hardship Certificate request Letter from employers with annual income Current Centrelink statement or correspondence Most recent finalised Notice of Assessment (with tax file number redacted PAYG summary statements from superannuation funds, Centrelink or DVA Statement of dividends or rents paid Business activity statement, profit and loss statement, annual tax return and business registration documents (if self-employed) Australian Business Number (ABN) Confirmation of non-primary residence assets Proof of nil income (where relevant) – 12 months of bank statements for all accounts linked to the homeowner Proof of official dependants and proof of ages – e.g. birth certificates, concession card, Centrelink statement listing dependants
Financial hardship agreement in place with lender	Copy of a current financial hardship agreement for the eligible home under the Resilient Homes Fund
Receiving or having one of these Centrelink payments, pensions or allowances: Age Pension Carer Payment Disability Support Pension Job Seeker payment Youth Allowance Parenting payment single Low Income Health Care Card Veteran Gold Card Commonwealth Seniors Health Care Card	Recent Centrelink payment statement One of the listed concession cards
Extenuating circumstance	Separation certificate from an employer Letter of support or evidence from a medical practitioner, psychologist, support worker, DV support services or legal representative Police report or court order Evidence of income for all homeowners - as detailed in the Household low-income criteria above Proof of dependants (e.g. birth certificates, concession card, Centrelink statement listing dependants) Note: Provide evidence to show how your circumstance meets the eligibility for ‘extenuating circumstances’ (see criteria above).

Last updated:: 24 June 2024

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