ABSTUDY Additional Incidentals Allowance 010-02050090

Has the customer contacted to advise that they have now supplied the remaining receipts after payment of Additional Incidental Allowance?

• Yes, go to Step 9
• No, go to Step 2

Australian Apprentices are not entitled to Additional Incidentals Allowance.

Does the student qualify for either the Tertiary Award or the Masters and Doctorate Award?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No, go to Step 8

Essential course costs are costs that:

• all students undertaking the same course incur and
• that the education provider would not reasonably be expected to provide

This may include:

• education provider fees - including union, sports, library, administration, amenities, laboratory fees or levies charged by an approved education provider
  This does not include tuition or course fees or flying time and associated fees charged for aviation courses
• textbooks and equipment - including books, published articles, stationery and other equipment items
  This does not include items which would be expected to be provided by the education provider or items such as musical instruments, sewing machines, typewriters or computers (this includes tablet computers, for example an iPad)

Does the student have essential course costs which exceed the prescribed amount?

Note: the total claim costs must exceed the prescribed amount for the student to be eligible.

• Yes, go to Step 4
• No, go to Step 8

The student must submit a claim detailing the cost of each item of essential course expenditure.

The claim must have the Head of Faculty or School of the Institution complete the School/Faculty declaration. This confirms that the items or services purchased are an essential course cost incurred by all students undertaking the course, in order to complete the course requirements.

Where a student purchases essential course items from a fellow student, they must provide:

• a fully itemised receipt detailing the purchase. It must show:
• Name of seller
• Details of each item purchased
• Date of purchase of each item
• Purchase amount of each item.
• a quote from a retailer (for example, bookshop or stationery supplier/catalogue) showing the recommended retail price of the item

The claim must account for the full level of the prescribed amount, including the initial Incidentals Allowance amount and the student contribution. The claim must include all necessary items which have been and not yet been purchased.

Note: receipts should clearly show: business name, each item purchased, date and amount of each item purchased.

Go to Step 5.

A student can include in the claim items that have not yet been purchased. However at least half of the total claim for Additional Incidentals Allowance must have already been purchased by the student before the claim can be processed.

Will the claim include items yet to be purchased by the student?

• Yes, go to Step 6
• No, go to Step 7

For items that have not yet been purchased, the claim must contain a fully itemised quotation for the item containing:

• business name of the organisation providing the item
• description of essential course item
• cost of the item

Note: the student must purchase these items and provide fully itemised receipts to ABSTUDY within three weeks from the date of the claim being granted. Failure to provide this information within this period will result in an overpayment for the student.

Go to Step 7.

• Tell the student:
• they may be eligible for ABSTUDY Additional Incidentals Allowance
• to lodge an ABSTUDY Additional Incidentals Allowance Claim Form M (SY031)
• Record details on a DOC

Procedure ends here.

• Tell the student they may not be eligible for ABSTUDY Additional Incidentals Allowance
• Record details on a DOC

While general advice based on information provided by the customer can be given over the phone, the customer may still test their eligibility by lodging the SY031 form.

Where the customer has contacted to advise that they have provided receipts and is within the due date of the MFU:

• Go to the FAL screen
• Select the relevant MFU
• Select ‘VIEW a future activity via the FAY screen’ and continue
• Remove the date form Resubmit Date field and continue. This will take the MFU to the AL screen to be allocated to ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing to complete
• Ensure the region remain set as ABS
• Record details on a DOC

Procedure ends here.