ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) qualifications 010-05050000

A student is eligible for ABSTUDY PES if they:

• meet the criteria for Schooling B, Tertiary or Masters and Doctorate Award
• are receiving one of the qualifying payments for Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) and ABSTUDY PES
• meet the general eligibility criteria for ABSTUDY

Full-time Australian Apprentices are not entitled to ABSTUDY PES.

Part-time Australian Apprentices who are undertaking qualifying study may qualify for ABSTUDY PES based on their course, as they can be assessed as a student and not an Australian Apprentice.

ABSTUDY PES customers are required to undertake full-time studies, unless one of the study load concessions apply. See Assessing study load concessions for ABSTUDY or ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES).

Note: those students who are undertaking a workload of less than 25% do not qualify for ABSTUDY PES, but may qualify for the ABSTUDY part-time award.

Students can claim ABSTUDY PES by submitting a claim:

• Verbally - calling ABSTUDY and running the ABSTUDY Simplified Claiming Tool, or
• Paper form - ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (SY020)

See Claiming ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) and Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) PES.

Other PES payments are available to students who qualify for assistance under either Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) qualifications or Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Scheme Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) qualifications.

Customers can choose which PES payment to apply for, however care should be exercised in offering customers a choice between the PES schemes, as there are differences in additional payments available:

• ABSTUDY PES recipients
• Incidentals Allowance
• Additional Incidentals Allowance
• School Fees Allowance (Group 2) including the redistribution of fees to support boarding fees
• Away from Base Assistance
• Residential Costs Option
• PES recipients
• Education Entry Payment (EdEP)

Individual customer's circumstances should be considered, and sufficient information given to ensure customers can make an informed decision.

Customers who have transferred to JobSeeker Payment (JSP) or Youth Allowance (YA) who were:

• in receipt of Disability Support Pension (DSP) and have been assessed as having a partial capacity to work, or
• who are no longer in receipt of Parenting Payment Single (PPS) due to their youngest child turning 14 years of age, and
• who were in receipt of ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) immediately before they transferred to JSP or YA will only remain eligible for ABSTUDY PES while they:
• remain in the same category (i.e. partial capacity to work or single principal carer), and
• are still completing the same course of education or study for which they were receiving PES while receiving DSP or PPS

The rate of payment of ABSTUDY PES depends on the student's study load and qualifying payment.

A student receiving a qualifying income support payment and undertaking at least 50% of the normal full-time study load may be entitled to receive the normal rate of ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES).

A student receiving a qualifying income support payment who has been granted either:

• a disability study load concession, or
• a pensioner study load concession, and
• who undertakes between 25% and 49% of the normal full-time study load, may be paid half the normal rate of ABSTUDY PES

However, students in receipt of certain pensions, Disability Support Pension (DSP), Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA), Invalidity Support Pension or DVA War Widow/er Pension (in some circumstances) will be exempt from this reduction.

ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) is calculated on a daily rate and paid fortnightly in arrears.

The payee for ABSTUDY PES is the student.