QLD FairPlay Vouchers - $200/yr per child

What Is This Payment?

FairPlay is the Queensland Government's sport and recreation voucher program for school-age children. The Department of Sport, Racing and Recreation issues a unique voucher code to each approved child, and the family gives that code to a registered provider when they enrol the child in a season, term or course. The provider then claims the $200 back from the department - parents never see cash, and the voucher cannot be cashed out.

The 2025-26 round is the first to run under two big changes. First, the voucher value moved from $150 to $200 - a 33% lift designed to keep pace with rising club fees, especially for swimming, gymnastics and dance where annual registration regularly clears $300. Second, the strict only-card-holder gate was removed: families no longer need a Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card to apply at all.

What replaced the card gate is a two-stage round structure. A priority round opens first and is reserved for households on a Health Care Card, Pensioner Concession Card, holders of a DVA Gold Card, families identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, refugee or humanitarian visa holders, and families in defined regional and remote Queensland postcodes. Two to three weeks later a general round opens to every Queensland family with a 5-17 year old, on a first-come-first-served basis until the round cap is reached.

FairPlay is per-child, per-financial-year. The voucher resets each 1 July but does not stack - an unused 2024-25 voucher cannot be applied to a 2025-26 registration. The 12-week expiry is also strict: parents who hold the voucher waiting for the next sport season often discover the code has lapsed.

How Much Can You Get?

The fixed amount is $200 per child per financial year. There is no income test, no asset test and no scaling - every approved child gets the same flat $200 voucher.

• Per-child allocation: a household with three eligible children (say ages 7, 9 and 13) can claim three vouchers in the same financial year, totalling $600.
• One-shot redemption: the voucher must be applied in a single transaction at a single provider. A $200 voucher cannot be split into $100 at one club and $100 at another, and any unused portion below $200 is forfeited.
• Top-up allowed, but not pooled: if a child's registration fee is $245, the family pays $45 out of pocket. If two children both want to play netball at the same club, each child still uses their own voucher - they cannot combine into one $400 credit on one child.
• 12-week expiry: from the date of issue. A voucher issued in late January expires in late April, which means it should be used for an autumn or winter season registration, not held for spring sport.
• Stacking with provider discounts: the voucher applies to the standard registration fee. Most clubs honour their own sibling discount or hardship reduction before applying the FairPlay voucher, which reduces the out-of-pocket further.
• Coverage: registration fees, club membership and core coaching costs are covered. Equipment is provider-specific - some clubs let you use the voucher toward shoes or uniforms, most do not.

The 2024-25 amount was $150 per child. The $50 lift to $200 in 2025-26 can mean the difference between affording one season versus two for multi-child households.

Eligibility Conditions

Three structural conditions must be true on the application date:

1. Queensland residence: state = QLD. The family's principal place of residence must be in Queensland. The child can play sport at a club just over the NSW border, but if the family home is in Tweed Heads (NSW) the application will be declined.
2. Dependent child aged 5 to 17: dependent_children = true with the child's age in the inclusive band 5-17. A child who is exactly 5 on the application date qualifies; a child who turned 18 before the application date does not. Children who turn 18 part-way through the financial year are still eligible if they were under 18 on the day the voucher was issued.
3. Round availability: a voucher must still be in the round cap when the application is submitted. There is no waitlist - once a round closes, applicants must wait for the next round to open.

Concession card status sets the round, not eligibility. The 2025-26 program kept three priority categories from the older only-card model and added two more. Families who hold a current Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card, families identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, families with a DVA Gold Card, refugee or humanitarian visa holders, and families in defined regional or remote postcodes can apply through the priority round. All other Queensland families wait two to three weeks for the general round.

Application rounds: historically the program runs two rounds per financial year, typically opening in January and July. Each round has a fixed voucher cap set by the department's annual budget. When the cap is reached the round closes immediately - the system does not roll unused vouchers from one round to the next within the same financial year.

Identity evidence: the parent or guardian needs a Queensland Government MyAccount, the child's name and date of birth, and one of: the child's Medicare card number, a Centrelink reference number, or an immigration document for refugee humanitarian applicants. Schools cannot apply on behalf of families - the application must come from the parent or guardian.

How To Apply

FairPlay is online-only through the Queensland Government FairPlay portal. There is no paper form, no phone-in pathway and no provider-led application. The administrative steps are:

1. Watch for round dates. The department announces opening dates one to two weeks ahead through the FairPlay website and the Queensland Government social channels. Subscribe to the FairPlay mailing list to get an email on opening day.
2. Set up Queensland Government MyAccount. A single MyAccount can hold multiple children. Pre-load each child's name, date of birth and Medicare number before round opening so the application form fills quickly.
3. Apply on the day the round opens. Priority round applicants get a head start of two to three weeks; general round applicants should treat opening day as a hard deadline. The voucher cap is typically exhausted within hours of general round opening.
4. Receive the voucher code. Approval is usually immediate or within one business day. The code arrives by email and appears in MyAccount.
5. Choose a registered provider. The FairPlay website lists every registered sport and recreation provider in Queensland. The list covers Auskick, Junior League, netball, rugby union and league, swimming clubs, gymnastics, martial arts, dance schools, surf life saving, tennis, basketball, athletics and outdoor adventure providers.
6. Redeem within 12 weeks. Hand the voucher code to the provider on enrolment. The provider applies the $200 to the registration fee and claims it back from the department.

Read the official QLD FairPlay program page

Real-World Scenarios

Scenario 1: Priority round, three children, full claim

Orla is 38 and lives in Logan with three children aged 7, 9 and 13. She holds a Health Care Card linked to Parenting Payment Single, which puts her in the priority round category. The 2026 January priority round opens at 9am on a Monday and Orla submits three applications inside 20 minutes. All three are approved by Tuesday morning, giving her $600 in vouchers. She uses the first $200 against an Auskick registration of $175 (and forfeits the unused $25 because vouchers cannot be split), the second against a Logan swim club season at $240 (paying $40 out of pocket), and the third against junior netball at $210 (paying $10 out of pocket). Total household out-of-pocket: $50 instead of $625.

Scenario 2: General round, single parent, single child

Patia is 32, lives in Cairns and works full-time. She does not hold a concession card, so the priority round is closed to her. Her 8-year-old daughter wants to do surf life saving. Patia subscribes to the FairPlay mailing list, watches for general round opening, and on the announced Tuesday she logs in during her lunch break at 12:15pm. The cap closes by 3pm that same day. Patia secures one voucher worth $200, applies it to the surf life saving nipper registration of $245, and pays the remaining $45 herself. If she had logged in at 4pm she would have missed the round entirely.

Scenario 3: Child has aged out

Quintessa is 41 and lives in Townsville. Her son turned 18 in February, three weeks before she tries to apply for the priority round. The portal blocks her application immediately because the child fails the 5-17 age band - dependent_children still passes, but the FairPlay age band is stricter than the broader Centrelink dependent-child definition. Quintessa instead steers her son toward the Active & Healthy adult activities calendar, which is free or low-cost, and reserves any future FairPlay claims for a younger niece she may take in.

Scenario 4: Cross-border family, NSW residence

Thalassa is 36 and lives in Tweed Heads on the NSW side of the border. Her two children attend primary school in Coolangatta in Queensland and play junior rugby league at a Gold Coast club. When she tries to apply for FairPlay she is rejected: state = QLD is read against the family's residential address, not the children's school or sporting club address. She instead applies for the NSW Active Kids voucher (currently $100 per child, with similar age rules) through Service NSW.

Scenario 5: Late application, round already closed

Una is 29 and lives in Toowoomba with her 9-year-old son. She hears about FairPlay from a neighbour in early March, well after the January round capped out. The next round will not open until July. Rather than waiting four months while her son misses the autumn netball season, Una asks the netball club directly about hardship reductions (the club waives 30% of the fee), and she registers her son with GIVIT for a chance at a sport equipment scholarship for boots and a uniform. She marks the July FairPlay opening date in her calendar and applies on day one of the next round.

Common Mistakes

• Assuming concession card families get more money. The $200 amount is identical for every approved family in 2025-26. Concession card status, ATSI status, DVA Gold Card status and regional postcode status only buy earlier access through the priority round - they do not unlock a second voucher or a higher dollar amount.
• Applying for a 4-year-old. The age band is strict 5-17 inclusive on the application date. A child turning 5 next month does not qualify yet. Younger children sit under federal Child Care Subsidy or Active Kids Council programs, not FairPlay.
• Trying to split the voucher. A FairPlay voucher is a single $200 redemption at a single provider in a single transaction. It cannot be applied as $100 at the swimming club and $100 at the dance studio, and any unused portion below $200 is forfeited.
• Combining two vouchers on one child. Each child has a one-voucher-per-financial-year cap. A family with one child cannot apply twice in priority and general rounds; a family with three children gets three vouchers, but cannot pool two of them onto one child.
• Buying equipment with the voucher. The voucher is designed for registration fees, club membership and coaching. Some providers let you put the voucher toward uniforms or boots, most do not. Check the provider listing before you assume equipment is covered.
• Letting the club apply on your behalf. Providers cannot start a FairPlay application. The parent or guardian must apply through Queensland Government MyAccount, receive the voucher code, and hand the code to the provider. Clubs only handle the back-end redemption.
• Carrying an unused voucher into the next financial year. The voucher expires 12 weeks from issue, and the per-child cap resets each 1 July. There is no rollover. If a season is cancelled, the family loses the voucher value entirely.

Related Benefits

• QLD First Home Owner Grant - $30,000 for new homes sits in the same Queensland family-support cluster but solves a different problem: the FHOG is a one-off $30,000 grant tied to a single new-build purchase, while FairPlay is a recurring $200-per-child annual voucher. Households often hit the FHOG once in a decade and use FairPlay every year a child is school-aged.
• Queensland Electricity Rebate - $386.34/yr for pensioners, seniors, veterans is the cash-side counterpart for the same families. Where FairPlay turns on the child, the electricity rebate turns on the parent's concession card. Many priority-round FairPlay applicants will already be claiming the electricity rebate from the same Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card.
• Family Tax Benefit Part A is the federal per-child cash payment. Receiving FTB-A at the maximum base rate auto-issues a Health Care Card, which lifts a family into the FairPlay priority round. FTB-A and FairPlay stack freely - one is fortnightly cash, the other is an annual sport voucher.
• Family Tax Benefit Part B tops up FTB-A for single-parent and single-income families. FTB-B recipients are common in the FairPlay priority round because the FTB-B income test sits well below most concession-card thresholds.
• Parenting Payment Single is the federal single-parent income support that issues a Pensioner Concession Card. PPS recipients automatically qualify for the FairPlay priority round and typically also receive the QLD Electricity Rebate, the federal Energy Supplement and Rent Assistance.
• Child Care Subsidy covers approved childcare for children up to 12. The two programs are age-staggered: CCS handles 0-12 year olds in formal care, FairPlay handles 5-17 year olds in sport and recreation. Many families use both for the same child during primary school.

Frequently Asked Questions