Start and closing date for ABSTUDY claims 106-05010110
Expand allABSTUDY payment examples
This table contains scenarios of entitlement start dates and an example of coding a tertiary student commencing a Masters course.
| Item | Scenario |
| 1 | Student starts a short course Robin has started a Certificate II in Hospitality at TAFE NSW. The course is 20 weeks in duration, starts on 3 February and finishes on 23 June. To have entitlement assessed from the earliest eligible date of 3 February, Robin needs to lodge the claim for ABSTUDY on or before 23 June. |
| 2 | Student starts a short course that overlaps consecutive calendar years Jamie has started a Certificate II in Aged Care at TAFE NSW. The course is 20 weeks in duration, starts on 2 November and finishes on 22 March the following year. To have entitlement assessed from the course start date of 2 November, Jamie needs to lodge the claim for ABSTUDY on or before 22 March. |
| 3 | Student lodges a claim past closing date Bailey has started a Certificate II in Child Care at TAFE NSW. The course is 20 weeks in duration, starts on 3 February and finishes on 23 June. To have entitlement assessed from the course start date of 3 February, Bailey would normally need to lodge the claim for ABSTUDY on or before 23 June. However, as Bailey had an exceptional circumstance occur that prevented lodgement of the claim by 23 June, and they have provided evidence to support this, the claim can be accepted and backdated to 3 February. |
| 4 | Student starts a late starting course Alex has started a Certificate IV in Youth Work online through National Training Solutions. The course is 33 weeks in duration, starts on 3 May and finishes on 20 December. To have entitlement assessed from the course start date of 3 May, Alex needs to lodge the claim for ABSTUDY on or before 31 December in the year of study. |
| 5 | Student starts a full-year course which overlaps consecutive calendar years Casey has started a Diploma of Community Services at Tafe NSW. The course is a full-year course which starts on 22 July and finishes on 12 June the following year. To have entitlement assessed from the earliest eligible date, Casey needs to lodge a claim for ABSTUDY on or before 31 December in the year of commencement. If a claim is lodged on any date between 1 January and 31 December in the year following the commencement year, Casey’s ABSTUDY claim will be accepted but only backdated to 1 January of that year. |
| 6 | Student starts a late starting course between 1 August and 31 December which overlaps consecutive calendar years Hunter has started a Certificate III in Hairdressing via Riverina Community College. The course is 60 weeks in duration, starts on 10 August and finishes on 13 September in the following year. To have entitlement assessed from the course start date of 10 August, Hunter needs to lodge a claim for ABSTUDY on or before the 31 December in the year of commencement. If a claim is lodged on any date between 1 January and 31 December in the year following the commencement year, Hunter’s ABSTUDY claim will be accepted but only backdated to 1 January of that year. |
| 7 | Student starts a late starting course between 1 April and 30 June which overlaps consecutive calendar years Darcy has started a Certificate III in Child Care online. The course is 42 weeks in duration, starts on 1 April and finishes on 20 January in the following year. To have entitlement assessed from the course start date of 1 April, Darcy needs to lodge a claim for ABSTUDY on or before the 31 December in the year of commencement. If a claim is lodged on any date between 1 January and 31 December in the year following the commencement year, Darcy’s ABSTUDY claim will be accepted but only backdated to 1 January of that year. Therefore, Darcy would only be paid from 1 January to 20 January. |
| 8 | Student starts a late starting course that overlaps multiple calendar years Jordan has started a Diploma of Arts online. The course is 100 weeks in duration, starts on 10 October 2025 and finishes on 9 September 2027. To have entitlement assessed from the course start date of 10 October, Jordan needs to lodge the claim for ABSTUDY on or before the 31 December in the year of commencement. If a claim is lodged on any date between 1 January and 31 December 2026, Jordan’s ABSTUDY claim will be accepted but only backdated to 1 January 2026. Jordan has until 31 December 2027 at the latest to lodge a claim, but if a claim is lodged on any date between 1 January and 31 December 2027, entitlement would only be backdated to 1 January 2027. |
| 9 | FTB child finishing Year 12 transferring to ABSTUDY Quinn is a Year 12 secondary student whose parent is currently receiving FTB entitlements on Quinn’s behalf. Quinn will be starting university the year after completing Year 12 and is wanting to apply for ABSTUDY assistance. Quinn’s final exam is on 30 October 2023, therefore FTB entitlement will cease 28 days after this. To ensure ABSTUDY entitlement is paid from FTB DPT+1, Quinn must lodge the ABSTUDY claim by 31 December in the year when Year 12 is completed. If Quinn lodges the claim in the year after Year 12 is completed, ABSTUDY can only be backdated to 1 January of that year. |
| 10 | Student starts a full year course Darcy has started a Certificate 4 in Design at TAFE NSW. The course is 40 weeks in duration (including holidays), starts on 3 February and finishes on 10 November. To have entitlement assessed from the earliest eligible date, Darcy needs to lodge the claim for ABSTUDY on or before 31 December in the year of study. |
| 11 | Student starts a degree course Harper has started a Bachelor of Education (Primary) through the University of Newcastle. The course is 4 years in duration and started on 6 March 2017. The closing date for a full year course is 31 December in the year of study. To ensure ABSTUDY entitlement is assessed from the earliest date in 2017, Harper must lodge a claim on or before 31 December 2017. However, Harper did not apply for ABSTUDY until 20 January 2018. Harper is, therefore, only eligible to have ABSTUDY entitlement assessed from 1 January 2018. |
| 12 | Tertiary student starts a Masters course Jesse is studying a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of New England. In the final year of the degree, Jesse has chosen to study over the summer study period, from November to February, in order to complete the Bachelor degree earlier. Jesse will then start a 2 year Masters of Arts course in March. Jesse is only entitled to the higher Masters and Doctorate rate of Living Allowance from when the Masters of Arts course starts in March. The system will attempt to pay Jesse back to 1 January in the year the Masters course starts. In order to prevent this, the new course (Masters of Arts), will need to be coded within a New Claim activity after the current course (Bachelor of Arts) finishes and ABSTUDY cancels End Date Reached (EDR). The New Claim activity will allow input of the correct start date on the Education Payments Start Date (EPDC) screen, ensuring the higher rate of Living Allowance is only paid from the Masters course start date in March. |
| 13 | Student requests backdating of ABSTUDY over same period YA was paid Morgan has been undertaking the first year of a 3-year degree, a Bachelor in Nursing. Morgan has received Youth Allowance for the first 9 months of the course and then realises they qualify for ABSTUDY. Morgan lodges an ABSTUDY claim, prior to the closing date of 31 Dec. Morgan is also requesting Away from Base assistance and a placement in Semester 1. It is more beneficial for Morgan to be paid ABSTUDY instead of YA from the start of the course. As Morgan lodged a claim prior to 31 December, ABSTUDY can be backdated. Morgan’s YA is cancelled from 1 January and ABSTUDY is granted from the same date (Morgan was in year 12 the year prior, so qualifies for ABSTUDY from 1 January). The YA overpayment must be fully recovered from the ABSTUDY arrears payment. |
| 14 | Debt Offset - FAA/AFB Rowan started studying an online course at the University of New England on 26 February. Rowan is currently receiving JobSeeker Payment (JSP) and has lodged a claim for ABSTUDY on 14 April. Rowan attended a compulsory residential school activity on 3 March and is wanting to claim a reimbursement for costs incurred to the value of $650. To be eligible for the reimbursement of the travel costs, Rowan will need to be eligible for ABSTUDY from 3 March. Since 3 March, Rowan has received:
If granting Rowan's ABSTUDY from 3 March, Rowan would be entitled to arrears of:
As it is more financially beneficial for Rowan’s ABSTUDY to be granted from 3 March, JSP can be cancelled from this date and offset the debt created with the ABSTUDY arrears. |
| 15 | Debt Offset - Jobseeker to ABSTUDY Masters Taylor is studying a Master of Architecture degree at the University of Canberra, starting 5 February. Taylor is currently receiving JobSeeker Payment (JSP) and has lodged a claim for ABSTUDY on 27 March. Since 5 February, Taylor has received:
This combined totals $3,736. If granting Taylor’s ABSTUDY from the course start date of 5 February, Taylor would be entitled to arrears of $4,925.60 ABSTUDY. As it is more financially beneficial for Taylor’s ABSTUDY to be granted from 5 February, JSP can be cancelled from this date and offset the debt created with the ABSTUDY arrears. As students on the ABSTUDY Masters and Doctorate rate have no entitlements to RA, the RA debt created will have to be reduced from the ABSTUDY Living Allowance arrears. The debt shell totalled $3,736, the ABSTUDY arrears being generated are $4,925.60. The Service Officer would reduce the arrears to only pay the difference. $1,189.60 of ABSTUDY will be released after the adjustments are made on the Daily Rate Summary (RATS) screen. $4,925.60 - $3,736 = $1,189.60 |
| 16 | Start date calculation - Jobseeker to ABSTUDY Tertiary Sasha is studying a Bachelor of Economics at UNSW, starting 12 February. Sasha is currently receiving JobSeeker Payment (JSP) and has lodged a claim for ABSTUDY on 19 March. Steve is assessing the claim on 25 March. For the period 12 February to 25 March (3 fortnights), Sasha has received:
If Steve were to grant Sasha’s ABSTUDY from the course start date of 12 February, Sasha would be entitled to arrears of:
As there is no financial benefit for Sasha’s ABSTUDY to be granted from 12 February, Sasha's JSP can be cancelled DPT+1 and granted ABSTUDY from this date. |