Calculating the start day for Austudy and Youth Allowance (YA) students and Australian Apprentices claims 106-05010150

The start day for Austudy and YA (student or Australian Apprentice) depends on the customer meeting the payability and qualification requirements for payment at the time of the claim. This includes:

• Austudy students undertaking full time Study, and
• YA students meeting full-time study requirements for YA (student)

Before payment can be made, Australian Apprentice customers:

• do not have to satisfy the full-time study requirements
• must have a current Commonwealth Registration Number

Generally, customers only receive payments or concession cards from the date they submit a claim.

Note: different processes apply for customers in vulnerable circumstances; see Intent to claim and vulnerable customers.

The start day to be paid as a student is:

• the date of claim, if on that day the customer:
• satisfied the full-time study requirements for YA students, or
• the activity test for Austudy, and
• satisfied all of the date of claim conditions
• is payable, apart from the application of an Income Maintenance Period or waiting period
• the student start date, if the customer:
• was not a student before claiming, and
• is payable, apart from the application of an Income Maintenance Period or waiting period, and
• their student start date is after the date of receipt of the claim (as this is the date the customer is first undertaking full time study as a student for Austudy or YA (Student)), or
• the transfer date, if the customer is transferring to Austudy or YA (Student) from another payment

If a customer starts their course before the second Friday after the course start date set by their education provider, they are deemed to have started on their course start date. See Late commencement of course for ABSTUDY, ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES), Austudy, PES, and Youth Allowance (YA)

The Resources page has information and scenarios for determining the first day of a course.

An Australian Apprentice is a person who has a current Commonwealth Registration Number in relation to a full-time:

• apprenticeship
• traineeship, or
• trainee apprenticeship

This does not include those:

• undertaking a part-time or school-based apprenticeship, or
• whose Commonwealth Registration Number is suspended or cancelled

The start date for an Australian Apprentice is the latter of the:

• date of claim, or
• the Commonwealth Registration Number start date

Note: do not consider a claim submitted until it is fully completed and the customer has supplied all supporting documents.

Student and Australian Apprentice customers provide information in their claims about their, and/or their partner's current and future employment income circumstance.

Use this information to determine:

• if the start date of their payment needs to be manually changed to a day the customer is both eligible and payable, or
• if their claim should be rejected because employment income will preclude them from payment in the 13 weeks after claim lodgement

If the online claim shows the customer and/or their partner are working and there is no indication their employment income will preclude payment, continue to assess the claim.

Place the customer onto 2 weekly reporting if the customer and/or their partner has employment income.

The system will apply a Manual Start Date on the Date of Commencement (NDC) screen when the customer lodges a claim for YA (student) and:

• they are under 22 years of age
• not a continuing or intending student, and
• Student Start Date is later than the claim submission date

This will make sure the customer is paid from the date they meet study requirements.