Volunteer Firefighters Compensation Package

This program aims to support Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) volunteers, who have dedicated considerable personal time to respond to these extraordinary bushfires and incurred a financial loss of income as a result.

A volunteer may only claim actual lost net (post-tax) income up to $300 per day, with the total claim not exceeding $6,000.

The payments are tax-free, not means-tested and additional to any other forms of disaster support a volunteer may be eligible for.

A volunteer cannot claim loss of income if they still have appropriate paid leave available (e.g. a community service leave or discretionary leave category) to them from their employer to undertake firefighting activities. A volunteer may still claim if they have used their own long service leave, annual recreational or sick leave to be absent from work to volunteer.

Multiple claims can be made, up to the maximum of $6,000. Applicants will need to fill out another claim form for any additional, eligible volunteer service up to 30 June 2020.

Payments will be made directly to applicants via electronic funds transfer.

The 2020 program key dates are:
- Expressions of interest: Opened 7 January and closed 12 January
- Program application: Opened 13 January and closed 31 July

Eligible applicants include QFES Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Service volunteers who must meet the following criteria:
- Experienced loss of income from being:
a) Self-employed.
b) Employed by a small or medium-sized business, being a business with an annual turnover of less than $50 million in the 2018-19 financial year, and has exhausted all available paid leave entitlements (not including long service leave, annual recreational or sick leave).
- Volunteered, as part of an operational response to bushfire firefighting on a fire ground or provide direct operational support for more than 10 calendar days between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020. This can include reasonable travel and recovery time but does not include training or participating in non-emergency operations (e.g. hazard reduction burns).

QFES volunteers deployed interstate as part of an operational response to bushfires firefighting on a fire ground or providing direct operational support may apply through this package.

Interstate volunteers deployed to Queensland to support bushfire response activities must apply through the Volunteer Firefighters Compensation Package of their own respective state or territory, if available.

Eligible operational support activities include:
- Airbase operations
- Airbase management
- Managing staging areas
- Equipment officers
- Peer support officers
- Community educators
- Incident Management Teams at local, regional and the State Operations Centres

The following are ineligible for funding:
- Catering support
- Brigade support members