A New Tax System (Family Assistance and Related Measures) Act 2000

🏠 Rent Assistance

• Different rent assistance rates now apply to 'shared carers' (parents who share custody) compared to those with full-time care. Shared carers have lower rent thresholds before assistance kicks in, but they get the better of two calculation methods
• Partners who are separated due to illness, respite care, or temporary circumstances can have their partner's rent counted toward their own rent assistance eligibility

💰 Maintenance Income (Child Support)

• New rules about how child support and maintenance payments are spread across the year (annualised) when calculating how much it reduces your FTB
• Permanently blind pension recipients are exempt from having their FTB reduced because of maintenance income

🏫 Child Care Benefit

• New concept of '24-hour care' — for children in overnight or extended care at a childcare service
• Clearer rules about when an absence from childcare still counts as attended (up to 29 days per year for casual absences, plus illness, pupil-free days, and preschool attendance)
• New definition of 'disabled person' for childcare purposes, including those with diagnosed impairments
• Non-residents can be treated as Australian residents for childcare benefit indefinitely or for a set period

Bottom Line

If you were a family receiving government assistance in 2000, this Act adjusted the rules you'd be assessed under — particularly around shared parenting, rent, child support, and childcare. Many changes were technical fixes to ensure the new family tax benefit system worked as intended from day one.