Help to stay in your rental (RentConnect)

RentConnect provides financial assistance to help you stay in your rental home and help with finding more affordable housing if you need it.

About RentConnect Tenancy Assistance

RentConnect Tenancy Assistance can help you:

  • find more affordable housing
  • overcome short-term financial problems to stay in your current rental.

How Tenancy Assistance works

RentConnect officers will assess your situation and work with you one-on-one to help you overcome financial and non-financial barriers to renting.

Short-term financial assistance

A Tenancy Assist payment can help tenants overcome short-term financial problems. It is a one-off payment of up to $1200 to be used for rental arrears, household and other essential bills. You'll need to provide a copy of the bill or rental arrears notice and we will make the payment directly to the supplier.

Help to pay rent or move to a more affordable rental

This may include:

Income eligibility conditions apply.

RentConnect officers can also help you overcome non-financial barriers when finding and applying for a rental.

Are you eligible for RentConnect Tenancy Assistance?

To be eligible for the financial support part of Tenancy Assistance, you must:

  • meet the household income eligibility limits (see below)
  • live in the premises for which the Tenancy Assistance is required
  • not own or part own a:
    • residential property
    • caravan
    • mobile home
    • live-aboard boat permanently connected to normal household utilities
  • not have a combined household cash and savings of more than $5,500
  • not have received the $1,200 Tenancy Assist payment in the previous 2-year period.

To be eligible for the advisory service part of Tenancy Assistance, you need to:

  • be facing non-financial barriers to renting
  • be able to successfully manage a rental tenancy.

Household income eligibility limits

Income eligibility limits are assessed on the total income for all applicants, not an individual applicant’s income. An applicant is a person who will sign the tenancy agreement.

To be eligible, the combined gross (before-tax) income of all applicants can’t be more than the limits shown in the table below.

Household type

Combined gross weekly income limit (before tax)

1 adult

$1,325

2 adults

$1,987

3 adults

$2,649

4 adults

$3,312

1 adult with 1 dependant

$1,722

1 adult with 2 dependants

$2,119

1 adult with 3 dependants

$2,517

1 adult with 4 dependants

$2,914

2 adults with 1 dependant

$2,384

2 adults with 2 dependants

$2,782

2 adults with 3 dependants

$3,179

2 adults with 4 dependants

$3,576

If your household type is not identified in the table above, use the information below to calculate your income eligibility:

  • first adult: $1324.61
  • each additional adult: $662.31
  • each dependant: $397.38.

The total household income limit is then rounded to the nearest dollar.

Combined gross income includes all forms of income received by each applicant, including:

  • wages
  • income support payments from Centrelink and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs
  • Family Tax Benefit payments
  • Youth Allowance
  • other Centrelink special-purpose payments
  • income from investments.

Types of income not included:

  • Veterans' Affairs Total and Permanent Impairment Disability Pensions
  • Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act Special (Special Rate) Payments (from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs)
  • income of dependent children under 18 years or any benefits paid to children living with parents).

Where to find RentConnect

RentConnect services are available in all Housing Service Centres:

To make an appointment:

Watch a video about Tenancy Assist

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We have some private rental products including Tenancy Assist.

So if a circumstance has come up and they’ve fallen behind in their rent and its only short term, we’re able to assist them financially to help them catch up on their rent, or help them with an outstanding water bill for example or electricity bill that has prevented them from paying their rent; trying to get them back on top to sustain their tenancy.

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