Commencing or returning to work for Austudy and Youth Allowance (Students) 102-07030040

Customers who satisfy the full-time study requirements for Austudy or study requirements for Youth Allowance as full-time students are encouraged to participate in part-time or casual employment. This allows them to keep their skills up-to-date and can help them into more permanent employment when they complete their studies. The income test provides an extra incentive for students to get part-time and casual work.

A customer may also continue to have YA (Student) or Austudy paid to them when they are employed for temporary periods on a full-time basis.

The purpose of the legislation is to allow full-time students to access the Student Income Bank and the higher income free area during periods of employment (for example, during semester breaks), including full-time employment.

The Youth Allowance or Austudy payment may cancel if the customer:

• has employment income that precludes payments for 12 consecutive fortnights
• is unable to satisfy full-time study requirements for Austudy or study requirements for Youth Allowance due to their ongoing commitment to employment

If a Youth Allowance (YA) or Austudy student contacts about starting work or to report their employment income, they must be referred to self-service to complete the update unless:

• self-service channels are currently unavailable (confirmed by Network News Update (NNU)/mySupport)
• the Service Officer decides the transaction is not appropriate to be self-managed by the student in that instance, or
• the student is from a remote area and cannot reasonably access online services

Students can report their income by:

• using the online reporting option
• using the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app, or
• by calling the Centrelink reporting line to report earnings via speech recognition technology

If a student is commencing or returning to full-time work, they may be entitled to a Special Employment Advance (SEA).

They may also have a continuing entitlement to a Low Income Health Care Card (LIC) or may now be eligible for a LIC if they meet the LIC income test.

Full-time students receiving YA and Austudy payments are not eligible for Working Credit because they have access to the Student Income Bank.

For more details about the transfer of Working Credit to Income Bank and vice versa as well as the maximum amounts that can be transferred, see Personal Income Test and Income Bank for ABSTUDY, Austudy and Youth Allowance (YA) students and Australian Apprentices.

If a student is returning to work as a full-time Australian Apprentice they may qualify for YA as an Australian Apprentice, consider entitlement to these payments.

Customers receiving Austudy or YA as an Australian Apprentice are subject to the same income and assets tests that apply to full-time students.

Australian Apprentices are not subject to the full time study requirements if they have a current Commonwealth registration number.

If the customer (or their partner) receives FTB or CCS, check if the customer needs to revise their current income estimate. Tell the customer of the choices available to help reduce the chance of an overpayment during the reconciliation process.