A FATHER who cares for his severely disabled son will be stripped of his carer payment and forced to go on the unemployment benefit because of a clash between his Family Court orders and social security law.

The former long-distance truck driver gave up his job to look after his son, who has cerebral palsy. But he will be $111 a week worse off, and will also lose the annual $600 carer supplement, after Centrelink notified him of the pending disqualification.

Unfair... A father will lose his carer payment for his 17-year-old son and be forced onto an unemployment payment.

Under the Family Court order, the father has the predominant care of his son for all but four days a fortnight when the boy goes to his mother, as well as for half the school holidays. But this division of care, which the father happily accepts, disqualifies him from receiving the Carer Payment.

A prerequisite for the payment is that a carer provides ''constant care'' and has only one day of respite a week and generally 63 days respite a year. The family court order means the father has on average two days respite a week.