General course requirements for Centrelink administered payments for students 010-07010000

This document outlines five different payments made by Services Australia specifically to students. They are Youth Allowance (YA), Austudy, ABSTUDY, Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) and Pensioner Education Supplement (PES). While each payment type has its own specific rules about study/course requirements, there are similarities.

Requirements for full-time students to receive specific payments

For customers to be regarded as full-time students for the purposes of qualifying for one of the payments for full-time students administered by Services Australia, they must be undertaking an approved course of study. For a course to be approved, both the course content and the institution providing the course must meet certain requirements. These requirements are determined by the relevant State or Territory authorities. A general requirement for the approval of a course is that it leads to some sort of academic award, such as a Certificate IV, Diploma or Bachelor. A person who is undertaking non-award study would generally not be eligible for payment as a full-time student, but there are exceptions to this rule.

Time frames and study loads

The time allowed for a course is based on the normal duration of that course (sometimes called minimum time). The time allowed is also dependent on the type of payment the student is receiving. Study load concessions may further extend the duration for which payment can be made. The student may be allowed some additional time to complete a course. This is known as allowable or reasonable time.

A person's study load is the amount of study they are currently undertaking and is used to determine whether a person is undertaking enough study to qualify for a payment for students.

Levels of study

With such a large variety of courses at a range of institutions, it is not possible to make individual comparisons between all of them. Instead, they are categorised by 'level of study'. There are five levels of study and all courses within the one level are considered to be roughly equivalent.

The five levels of study include:

Level A
Level B
Level C
Level D
Level M

Not all Masters Courses are approved for income support payments. However, all students undertaking Masters Courses on the approved course list are considered to be undertaking approved study for the purposes of YA, Austudy and PES.

Startup Year Courses are only approved for income support payments where the student is enrolled and has been selected for a STARTUP-HELP loan by their higher education provider. See Startup Year Courses for more information.

Short courses

Some courses are regarded as short courses. Generally, qualification for payment starts on the first day of the course and ceases on the last day. Payments do not continue for the gap between ceasing a short course and commencing another course (regardless of the length of the second course) except in the case where the course is articulated with other short courses. See Approved short courses and student payment eligibility.

In certain circumstances ABSTUDY customers can be eligible for payment between short courses during a year or over the long vacation.

Proof of enrolment (POE) in a course of study is not required for students commencing a new course or making an initial claim for AIC, Austudy, or YA. The proof of enrolment (POE) requirement for ABSTUDY and PES still applies in limited circumstances.