Assessing and coding student and Australian Apprentice claims for Youth Allowance (YA) 010-06020010

Claims for YA can be lodged by customers or their correspondence nominees, using:

• Customer online accounts
• an Assisted Customer Claim (ACC)
• a Claim for Youth Allowance (SY001) form

For further information, including which nominee types have access to online services, see Initial contact with students or Australian Apprentices claiming Youth Allowance (YA).

The Re-claim or Transfer for Austudy or Youth Allowance (SY089) paper claim lodged with a Date of Receipt on or after 1 April 2023 cannot be accepted.

Straight through processing is where a claim for a social security payment or service is assessed using criteria to identify if it is suitable for an automated grant outcome.

The system may process YA student claims automatically if they meet these criteria:

• Confirmed identity
• Residency requirements
• Tax file number recorded
• Employment status requirements
• No change in known relationship details
• No change in known children details
• Parental Income requirements
• Independence requirements
• The customer does not identify as having a disability, a medical condition which impacts their ability to study or is in a bereavement period
• Study details are able to be confirmed
• Accommodation requirements

If a claim meets the criteria for an automated assessment, DOCs or Display Notes on the customer's record will show that ROXY has created these.

Customer contact

If a customer asks for an explanation or applies for a formal review of the decision, the Decision Maker must enter their logon and the customer's local service centre when running the script.

If the claim was incorrectly granted, give feedback via ROXY.

Customers who lodge a claim for YA may not be eligible for payment because they do not meet the basic qualification, payability or customer obligation requirements for payment. Sometimes, customers may lodge an inappropriate or incorrect claim.

In all these circumstances, claims must be rejected. Different procedures apply if the customer withdraws their claim.

Note: this procedure does not apply to claims where an unreasonable to live at home (UTLAH) assessment is in place. See below.

UTLAH assessments may be:

• conducted by a Services Australia social worker
• completed by the Over 18 UTLAH (O18) team, or
• automatically re-applied by the system

If a UTLAH assessment is in progress, do not reject the claim FSD (failed to supply documents). If it is not already held, place the claim on hold pending the outcome of the UTLAH assessment.

When an FTB child submits a YA claim, FTB auto-cancels for the young person. This occurs from either 1 January (if the customer has nominated that as a start date), or the earliest deemed date of qualification for YA.

If YA is later granted with an earlier start date, an overpayment of FTB is calculated. If claiming online, a customer can elect 1 January as the start date for their YA payment if they submit their claim between October and December, and finish Year 12 in November or December of that calendar year. FTB may continue up to 31 December.

If the YA claim is rejected, the FTB payment may be reassessed or restored. See Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for children aged 16-19 years.

If a family is receiving child support for a child who is granted YA as an independent, consider if child support is still payable. Notify Child Support if this is the case, because it may be a terminating event for maintenance purposes.

Customers transferring from another benefit or reclaiming within 52 weeks of last receiving YA should re-claim online.

Current YA customers changing their activity from job search to study do not need to re-claim. See Youth Allowance (YA) job seeker or Australian Apprentice returning to full-time study. These customers must give full details of their study or show they are undertaking a full-time Australian Apprenticeship. Do not issue a Study Details MOD (ST) unless study details are not given verbally.

The Re-claim or Transfer for Austudy or Youth Allowance (SY089) paper claim lodged with a Date of Receipt on or after 1 April 2023 cannot be accepted.

If a YA customer indicates that they are undertaking a full-time Australian Apprenticeship, Services Australia will obtain the Australian Apprenticeship details from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.

If there is a gap between ceasing study and starting the Australian Apprenticeship, and the customer wants to receive a payment for this gap, they may be:

• eligible to remain on YA as a job seeker (if under 22 years of age), or
• claim JobSeeker Payment (JSP) if aged 22 and over

If a customer receives a favourable decision after requesting a review, a new claim is not needed. The previous claim must be reassessed.

When a Claim for Youth Allowance (SY001) paper claim is scanned onto a customer's record, the system creates a SOA Shell for allocation and processing in Process Direct.

A claim can be created using the SOA Shell application within Process Direct, if:

• a customer is subject to a re-grant or reassessment, and
• an online claim or Assisted Customer Claim (ACC) is not available to re-index

For example, to implement an Authorised Review Officer (ARO) decision where no new claim has been lodged.

Do not use a SOA Shell in place of re-indexing a determined YA online claim or Assisted Customer Claim.

If a customer is transferring to Austudy or Youth Allowance (YA) (student) from another payment, eligibility for EdEP must be checked as part of the YA (student) new claim assessment process.

YA students and Australian Apprentices are automatically issued a HCC after their claim is granted.

If the student or apprentice is transferring from a payment that includes a Pension Concession Card (PCC), the PCC entitlement stops on the payment transfer date. Customers transferring from YA (job seeker) keep their current HCC and will receive a new card when it expires.

A student may still qualify for a Tertiary Access Payment (TAP) if Youth Allowance is not payable due to excess parental income. See Tertiary Access Payment (TAP).

Only specifically trained staff have access to the Apprenticeships Data Management System (ADMS) required to process Apprentice claims for YA. See the Resources page in Apprenticeships Data Management System (ADMS).