Reissuing annual Financial Supplement Loan (FSL) statements 102-15010070

The term 'Student Financial Supplement Scheme (SFSS)' referred to the program name of the Scheme. 'Financial Supplement Loan (FSL)' was the product of the Scheme. In other words, students applied for the product FSL and received this through the program SFSS.

The funds for the FSL were provided by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). When the student applied for an FSL, the student entered into a loan contract with the CBA for a contract period. All loans were administered by Services Australia until the end of the contract period. At the end of the contract period, the outstanding loan was transferred to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

At the end of the contract period, the loan became a debt to the Commonwealth and is repayable through the taxation system. The final balance on all outstanding loans will show as zero on the Centrelink system. This does not mean that the loan has been zeroed off, just that the balance has now been transferred to the ATO for recovery through the taxation system.

FSL statements were sent in June of each year during the contract period. They advised the student of the amount that was outstanding on their FSL, plus any Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustments. The statement also indicated the amount that was to be repaid, if the student repaid their loan in full, by 31 May of the following year. A separate FSL statement was issued for each year for which a customer had accepted an FSL.

Note: no FSL statements have been reissued by Services Australia since the end of the contract period in December 2005.

The CBA also issued annual statements in January of each year that reflected the transactions that occurred in the student’s loan account, but did not include any early repayment bonus that the student received for making a repayment or any other changes to the loan balance made by Services Australia. Therefore, this should not be relied on if the student wished to have an accurate loan balance. The final CBA statement was issued with a zero balance after the buyback of all loans by the Commonwealth Government on 1st December 2005. No further statements were received by students from the CBA.

Supplement statements were issued during the contract period only.

Customers requesting information about a loan that has been transferred to the ATO should be referred to the ATO website for information on requesting the latest information on their outstanding FSL balance.

If the customer requests more information about the details of their FSL loan, the Service Officer should contact the Student Programs Team. The Student Programs Team can arrange to have copies of the original loan contract and transaction history sent to the customer.