Effect on student payments of enrolment in more than one course or at more than one educational provider 010-07010140

For a student to be eligible for a student payment they usually must be undertaking a sufficient workload in a single approved course.

If the student is not undertaking a sufficient study load in a single course, they may count subjects from another approved course towards the study load requirement if the additional subjects are recognised by the original educational provider as part of the course for which the student is being paid an allowance.

If the original provider confirms the additional subjects will be credited to the original course, and the original course end date requires extending, for:

• ABSTUDY students, see Changing or correcting course of study and/or educational provider for ABSTUDY
• all other students, see Changing or correcting course of study for Youth Allowance, Austudy and Pensioner Education Supplement students

Record all details of the student's enrolment on a DOC.

An ABSTUDY customer may study one or more courses at the same time. They may qualify for Living Allowance or ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) for one course and Incidentals Allowance under Part-time Award for the other.

Where a student undertakes concurrent courses, the one deemed the main course is the one that attracts Living Allowance or ABSTUDY PES.

Customers can interchange between concurrent courses, so the most financially beneficial course attracts the Living Allowance or ABSTUDY PES payment.

As well as receiving ABSTUDY PES for the main course, a customer can receive Incidentals Allowance for a concurrent course. If the main course ceases and they continue to meet the criteria for ABSTUDY PES, they may transfer the ABSTUDY PES payment to a concurrent course.

If edit E628YP - Student dates on ICP course inconsistent presents when coding additional concurrent courses, see Table 2.

However, customers receiving ABSTUDY PES that transfer to JobSeeker Payment (JSP) or Youth Allowance (YA) and continue to receive ABSTUDY PES, cannot interchange between concurrent courses who are:

• in the DSP transition group and have been assessed as having a partial capacity to work, or
• no longer receiving Parenting Payment Single (PPS) due to their youngest child turning 8 years of age

Services Australia uses the main course to assess the customer's continued entitlement to ABSTUDY PES. Should the main course cease, their ABSTUDY PES payment cannot transfer to the remaining course/s they were studying concurrently. This is regardless of whether they were studying that course/s prior to the transfer. Their entitlement to continue receiving ABSTUDY PES will cease.

A student studying at more than one provider may remain eligible for assistance if:

• they meet the study load requirement in a single course (see above), or
• the studies at the second provider are:
• recorded as enrolment in the approved course at the first provider, or
• the original provider provides evidence showing acceptance of the subjects towards the first course once completed, and
• both providers are approved for student payment purposes

Additional documents/information required

If actioning the request in:

• Process Direct - use the Request Documents application

If the customer has already supplied evidence to support enrolment at more than one provider, go to Step 8.

For a scenario that meets this type of enrolment, see scenario 1 on the Resources page.

Subjects that are unrelated to the approved course cannot be counted as part of the study load for the approved course.

See scenario 2 on the Resources page.

Most universities offer some combined courses (for example, Bachelor of Arts/Law). An approved combined course is treated as a single course for student payment purposes.

Full-time study and satisfactory progress rules are assessed against the study load and duration of the double degree.

Credit for previous study cannot be counted as part of the study load requirements for a course.

Although the provider grants this credit, the student is not actually undertaking the study at the time. A study load concession may be possible, however, see:

• Assessing the two-thirds study load concession for ABSTUDY
• Assessing eligibility for 66% concessional study load for Austudy, or
• Assessing concessional study loads for Youth Allowance (YA)

If the customer has supplied evidence of enrolment at more than one provider details will need to be updated on Education Course Details (EDC) screen as follows:

• Institution field, insert the home provider code
• Student ID Number field, code the student's ID for their home provider
• Concurrent institution for this course field, insert the host provider code

Record details of the student's study on a DOC, including the student's ID number for their host provider, and what evidence was provided.

Use TCSI Review Exemption Fast Note to add the review exemption end date.

The Fast Note is referred to the TCSI processing team to update.

If edit E628YP - Student dates on ICP course inconsistent presents when coding additional concurrent courses for an ABSTUDY PES customer, escalate the following details to a Local Peer Support (LPS):

• Provider name
• Course name and code
• Course level
• Study load
• Start Date
• End date

LPS must escalate this to the Service Support Officer (SSO) through the Technical Support Centre (TSC) tool.

Where an SSO gets an escalation to code additional concurrent courses for ABSTUDY PES, they must:

• add the new course on the Education Course Details (EDC) screen, and make sure the Student Start date is course end date+1 of the previous course
• manually calculate the Customers Incidentals Allowance entitlement for the academic year
• pay their outstanding Incidentals Allowance entitlement via the Payment Adjustment (PYAJ) screen
• if the course continues into the next calendar year, create a review for 20 January of the following year requesting manual Incidentals Allowance calculation
• complete a Display on Access (DOA) DOC on the customer's record advising:
• Customer has confirmed they are full-time from xx/xx/20xx in the following course
• Incidentals Allowance manual payment of $xxx paid via PYAJ for 20xx academic year
• Edit E628YP - Student dates on ICP course inconsistent presented and manual workaround coded on EDCH