Payment of Youth Allowance (YA) and Austudy when a student is deferring or discontinuing study before the end of the course 102-07020050

The activity must be handed over to and processed in Customer First where a:

• customer advised they have deferred or discontinued study through the Manage Study Details online service, and
• Change of Circumstances (ZCOC or ZALL) activity is allocated with a status of:
• In Progress, or
• For Manual Action

To hand the activity over:

• follow the instructions in Manage study details, Table 3 – Online study update – manual process, then
• return to this process and follow the Customer First coding instructions

Go to Step 2.

If the customer:

• intended to study and will not, or did not start their course. See Customer will not commence full-time study for Youth Allowance (YA), Austudy and Pension Education Supplement (PES)
• is currently recorded as being in an 'Intention to Study' period (check coding on the Customer Study Details (EDC) screen in Process Direct or Education Course Details (EDC) screen in Customer First) or they have been Suspended - Failed to Provide Course Details (SUS-PCD). See Processing end of course and intention to study reviews for Austudy and Youth Allowance (YA)
• has already started or will not start their course, and their payment is in an ‘Assessed’ status, go to Step 6
• has stopped study in one course and changed to a new course, see Changing or correcting course of study for Youth Allowance, Austudy and Pensioner Education Supplement students

For all other customers, go to Step 3.

Has the customer stopped full-time study due to a medical condition or because they are impacted by unforeseen or extreme circumstances?

• Yes, see the appropriate procedure below:
• Austudy student or Australian Apprentice becomes incapacitated or impacted by unforeseen or extreme circumstances
• Youth Allowance (YA) student or Australian Apprentice becomes incapacitated impacted by unforeseen or extreme circumstances
• Procedure ends here
• No, go to Step 4

Has the customer started an Australian Apprenticeship?

• Yes, investigate entitlement to ABSTUDY, Austudy or YA as an Australian Apprentice, see Existing customer starts an Australian Apprenticeship. Procedure ends here
• No, go to Step 5

Is the customer now studying part-time?

• Yes, see:
• Changing study load from full-time to part-time or concessional study load for Youth Allowance (YA), Austudy or PES
• If the customer is not eligible for a concessional study load, see Step 1 in Table 2
• No, see Step 1 in Table 2

Update the study details if:

• a payment is in ‘Assessed’ status, and
• the customer advises they will no longer be studying full time

See Assessing entitlement to Youth Allowance or Austudy where the customer will not commence full-time study table.

Procedure ends here.

If a YA or Austudy (student) stops full-time study they must notify within 14 days (notification period) to receive backdating of JobSeeker Payment (JSP) or to transfer to YA (job seeker) if they are eligible.

If they fail to notify they have stopped studying full time within 14 days, payment of JSP/YA (job seeker) may only start from the date a new job seeking claim is submitted.

Update the customer record as follows:

• go to Customer Study Details (EDCH) screen in Process Direct or Education Course History (EDCH) screen in Customer First and correct the Student End Date: field, to the date the student:
• last studied, or
• stopped to have an intention to return to study, or
• last undertook a sufficient study load to qualify for payment. That is, the day before their study load reduced
• insert a Newstart Education Status (NES) entry:
• Event Date: field, code the student end date plus 1 day
• Student Status: field, code 'NST' (not a full-time student)
• Education Level Attained: field, update if necessary

For a dependent student under 22 years of age receiving the away from home rate, determine if they continue to be entitled to the away from home rate.

Go to Step 2

If the customer is:

• under 22 years of age, and
• does not want to continue to receive YA as a jobseeker, go to Step 4
• wants to continue to receive YA as a jobseeker, go to Step 3
• failed to complete the Course End Date review, see Student to job seeker transfers (Table 2)
• 22 years or over and ceased studying:
• before their 22nd birthday, go to Step 4
• after their 22nd birthday, manual cancellation is not needed. The payments will cancel automatically from the updates made to the NES and EDCH screens. Go to Step 5

Customers under 22 years who advise of stopping study within 14 days and are seeking another income support payment do not need to lodge a claim.

If the customer has contacted:

• within their notification period, and they want to receive further financial assistance:
• for a job seeking payment, see Student to Job seeker transfers
• for an alternative income support, see Contact in relation to an intended claim (CLK)
• outside their notification period and want to receive further financial assistance, they must lodge a new claim. Go to Step 4

Manual cancellation of the student payment is needed for customers:

• 22 years or over who ceased studying before their 22nd birthday, or
• under 22 years of age who:
• do not want to continue to receive YA as a jobseeker, or
• did not notify of stopping study within 14 days

To manually cancel the student payment:

• go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen
• Service Reason: YAL – Youth Allowance
• Action: field, CAN - Cancel
• Reason: field 'NST' - not a full-time student
• Effect Date: field, student end date plus 1 day

Record the details of the decision to cancel on a DOC.

Go to Step 5.

If the customer wants to receive further financial assistance and contacts:

• within their notification period
• for a job seeker payment, see Student to Job seeker transfers
• for an alternative income support, see Contact in relation to an intended claim (CLK)
• outside their notification period, tell the customer they must lodge a new claim. Go to Step 6

If the customer does not want to receive further financial assistance, go to step 6

Determine if the customer has incurred a debt for failing to notify of stopping studies, see:

• Raising debts resulting from a failure to report or notify and
• Raising debts for Centrelink administered payments for students

Record details of the decision to cancel and any other action taken on a DOC.

Note: If a customer received a Crisis Payment in the period the change is applied, a manual reassessment of Crisis Payment may be required. For more information, see Reviewing and reassessing Crisis Payment (CrP).