Transition to Independent Living Allowance survey

This consultation is now closed.

The Department of Social Services (the department or DSS) wants your help to improve the Transition to Independent Living Allowance (TILA). TILA is a $1,500 payment available to eligible young people leaving care to help them with some basic costs while they transition to independence. By participating in this survey you can help us get a better understanding on how young people engage with the payment and how we can improve this to meet their needs.

We would like to hear from:

• Young people who have received TILA.
• Young people who have not applied for TILA.
• Caseworkers or agency workers from government or non-government agencies.
• Non-parent carers who have looked after and supported young people in formal out-of-home care.

Before you get started we need to provide you with some information to make you aware of your rights when completing this survey.

Information on the questions we will ask you

• The survey should take you about 10-15 minutes to complete.
• The questions will be about your experience with TILA.
• The survey will not be about your/young person’s experience in care.
• Some of the questions we will be asking you will be about:

There is also an option in the survey for you to contact us to share your TILA story. You can share with us your suggestions on how we can improve TILA for others.

Information on your responses

• Your responses will be anonymous, which means we will not ask for your name or personal details.
• You do not have to complete the survey all at once.
• You do not have to answer all of the questions if you don’t want to.
• You can take a break at any time as you complete this survey.
• You can save your answers and come back to complete the survey at any time.
• When you finish the survey and press ‘Submit’, a special code will automatically be created just for you.
• This special code is called a Submission ID number.
• The Submission ID number will not identify you, where you live or any other information.
• You can contact us to delete your submitted survey responses if you no longer want to participate. Email us at tila@dss.gov.au and include your Submission ID number to do this by 15 August 2022.

If you need assistance with the survey

Remember that this survey is about your experiences with TILA and not about your or the young person’s time and experiences in care.

We encourage you to get assistance to complete this survey from a support person or trusted adult if you are:

• under 18, or
• living with a disability, or
• need a translator.

As we will not know who you are and be unable to assist you if you need support, please do not include any sensitive information in the survey.

We have also provided a guide that can help you complete the survey.

If you need support

Sometimes thinking about our past experiences, can cause us to have an emotional response and we may need or want help with these emotions. If you find yourself having a reaction to, are thinking about your past experiences more than you would like, during or after this survey, we encourage you to talk to your local care leaver support service or contact one of the numbers below:

• In an emergency call Triple Zero (000)
• Lifeline 13 11 14
• Kids Help Line (for ages 5 to 25) 1800 55 1800
• Beyond Blue 1300 224 636
• Mensline 1300 78 99 78
• Suicide Call Back Service (for ages 15 years and older) 1300 659 467
• 1800 Respect 1800 737 732

Translating and Interpreter Service

Please contact the TILA Team at tila@dss.gov.au to request the survey questions and survey documents be translated into a language other than English.

Privacy Statement

• The survey is anonymous, meaning we will not ask your name or where you live.
• All questions are optional.
• No Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are collected from this survey.
• We will not ask the name of any organisations you are associated with.
• We will use your answers to help make TILA better and make sure more young people are aware of it and use it.
• If you send us an email we will treat it in confidence and in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Privacy Collection Notice.

Consent to participate in this survey

By participating in this survey you are letting us know that you consent or are ok to take part in this survey, and that you give the department permission to collect and use your answers.

How to contact us

If you would like to give us feedback on this survey please email complaints@dss.gov.au

For any other enquires on TILA please email TILA@dss.gov.au

We will provide further updates in relation to TILA at www.dss.gov.au