Commencing or returning to work for ABSTUDY 102-07030010

Obtain the following details from the applicant/student:

• Date of commencement of employment
• Name of employer, address and phone number
• Income details. If the customer commenced employment prior to ceasing studies, ensure the Employment Income Summary (EANS) screen is coded for correct entitlements to be assessed
• If the customer ceased studies prior to commencing employment, no employment details need to be coded
• Last date of full-time study attended (if applicable)

Is the student commencing full-time employment in an Australian Apprenticeship, traineeship or trainee apprenticeship?

• Yes, go to Step 8
• No, go to Step 2

Does the student intend to continue their full-time studies, e.g. they are only employed part-time, or full-time during the Christmas/New Year vacation period?

• Yes, payments for ABSTUDY may continue. Go to Step 9
• No, go to Step 3

Advise the customer that their ABSTUDY as a student may only be paid up to the date they became aware they would not be recommencing as a full-time student.

If the student commenced employment prior to ceasing study, code the employment income.

If the last day of attendance or date the customer became aware they would not be recommencing study:

• is not known, send an ABSTUDY action request Fast Note to the ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing Team, outlining customer's circumstances, and suspend payment. Select Auto Text, use Students, ABSTUDY & Apprentices >Update > ABSTUDY Study Update Required > Confirm. Procedure ends here
• is known, go to Step 4

Send an ABSTUDY action request Fast Note to the ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing team, outlining customer's circumstances, and suspend payment. Select Auto Text, use Students, ABSTUDY & Apprentices >Update > ABSTUDY Study Update Required > Confirm.

Procedure ends here.

ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing staff, go to Step 4.

Code details of the last date of study or date the customer became aware they would not be recommencing study on the system. The system will then automatically cancel the student's payment from that date. See: Payment of ABSTUDY when a student is deferring or discontinuing study before the end of the course for coding advice.

Go to Step 10

ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing staff, go to Step 5

Check the student's Date Paid To (DPT) on ABSTUDY. If it is:

• after the last date of full-time study, go to Step 6
• prior to the last date of full-time study attended, go to Step 7

Follow up any debt which may have occurred.

Note: the system will automatically record a transaction within DMIS if the correct indicator was coded when the study was recorded.

Check the Dependent Youth Rate Summary (!DYRSUMM) screen. This will display both Active Sibling Information (those siblings which are part of the family pool) and Other Sibling Information (those siblings not considered to be in the family pool).

Cancellation of ABSTUDY will result in the student's removal from the family pool which may have an impact on siblings' rate or entitlement.

Changes made to the student record may affect other sibling's payments if the student has dependent siblings receiving:

• the Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) scheme Additional Boarding Allowance (ABA)
• ABSTUDY, or
• Youth Allowance (YA)

Go to Step 10.

There may be continuing entitlement to ABSTUDY as an Australian Apprentice depending on the customer's circumstances.

Australian Apprentices are subject to the same income and assets tests as students.

No paperwork is required. Services Australia will obtain the Australian Apprenticeship details from the Department of Education.

If there is a gap between ceasing study and commencing the Australian Apprenticeship, and the customer wishes to access income support for this gap, they may need to claim a payment as a job seeker. Youth Allowance or JobSeeker Payment (JSP) will be the applicable payment, depending on their age.

For details of the benefit transfer process for Australian Apprentices, see to Existing recipient starts an Australian Apprenticeship (apprentice or trainee)

Procedure ends here.

Place the customer on 2 weekly reporting, see Reporting requirements for students and Australian Apprentices.

Where needed, code employment income via the earning and reporting workflow. See Recording and correcting employment income details.

Advise of their reporting options via self-service.

Advise the next date they are due to report.

Go to Step 10

Details of employment including:

• employer details
• date last studied
• any other action taken (if payment has been cancelled

DOC minimum standards

These only require the collection and recording of enough information about the employer (e.g. contact name and address or phone number) to allow income assessment, as well as contact with the employer if necessary.

Contact may be necessary for verification of the income details provided, or for conducting reviews resulting from Data Matching with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Some customers (e.g. those who work in sensitive areas like women's refuges, etc.) may not want all employment details (e.g. business name) recorded on a DOC. This does not affect the requirement to collect sufficient information for assessment or review purposes.