Member's Guide to ADF Pay and Conditions in
6.5
Initial home purchase
The home purchase assistance
scheme (HPAS) helps you to buy a home for you or your dependants to live in, in
Australia. This scheme covers your first purchase. For any further purchases or
sale, see 6.6,
Home purchase or sale expenses allowance.
When can it be granted?
You can be paid a lump sum
allowance to help you buy a home in the location you are posted to. You can
only be paid the allowance once. You must be likely to serve at the location
for another year.
What if your dependants
are elsewhere?
If you are classified as a
member with dependants (unaccompanied), you may be paid the allowance to help
you buy a home in the location where your dependants live. This also applies if
you are posted to a ship, and your dependants live somewhere else (even if it
is not the ship's home port). (see 8.1,
What category are you in?)
What if you do not live
there?
The allowance is paid to help
you buy somewhere to live. The general principle is that you (or your
dependants) should take no more than a month to move in (after settlement, or
after moving to the new location, or after a new home is built). If you do not
meet the time limits you may have to repay the allowance.
Other conditions
If you and your spouse are
both members and are posted to the same location, only one of you can be paid
the allowance. The other may be able to claim the allowance for a home purchase
at a future posting.
The allowance is taxable.
Application to Reservists: No, except for Reservists on continuous
full-time service for 12 months or more.
Reference: ADF Pay and Conditions Manual, Chapter 6 Part 2
Division
1
Form: AC970 -
Application for Home Purchase Assistance Scheme (HPAS) or Home Purchase or Sales
Expense Allowance (HPSEA)