Cancellation of Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) and ABSTUDY PES 102-10020240

A student may have their PES or ABSTUDY PES payments cancelled if:

• they have had a change in their circumstances
• they fail to comply with the requirements for payment
• another type of payment is more beneficial, or
• they voluntarily cease payment

Payments can be cancelled either automatically or manually.

Automatic cancellation of PES or ABSTUDY PES occurs following reassessments that result in no continuing qualification to PES, ABSTUDY PES or their qualifying payment, or if the student is no longer undertaking approved study.

ABSTUDY PES will be cancelled automatically if the customer's qualifying payment of Parenting Payment Single (PPS) has cancelled due to:

• the customer's youngest child turning 8 years of age

In these cases, the customer will normally be automatically transferred to:

• JobSeeker Payment (JSP), or
• Youth Allowance (YA) (job seeker)

On transfer to one of these qualifying payments, the customer's entitlement to ABSTUDY PES will be reassessed and the payment restored if they are eligible. ABSTUDY PES will continue to be paid until the customer has completed the course they commenced while in receipt of their previous qualifying payment, under existing ABSTUDY progress rules (reasonable time and limits of assistance).

Manual cancellation is needed where the loss of qualification is not the end result of a reassessment but the result of a decision to cancel PES or ABSTUDY PES payments.

For example, a student has asked Services Australia to cancel PES or ABSTUDY PES payments (despite still being eligible) or a Service Officer has decided payments should be cancelled due to the student's failure to reply to correspondence.

PES and ABSTUDY PES payments are cancelled temporarily for customers transferring from a qualifying payment to Jobseeker Payment. A manual cancellation is needed due to a system limitation and is followed by a restoration, once the YA or JSP claim has been finalised.

See, Cancellation of, or changes to qualifying payment for Pensioner Education Supplement (PES), ABSTUDY PES or Assistance for Isolated Children PES.

Customers, who wish to participate in Skills for Education and Employment (SEE) and do not qualify for PES, may be eligible for the Language, Literacy and Numeracy Supplement (LLNS) of $20.80 per fortnight.

The supplement provides financial assistance for job seekers who want to improve their English language, literacy or numeracy skills as part of their plan to return to work. This assistance is to enable job seekers undertaking SEE to meet the additional costs associated with attendance and provides added incentives for them to participate in the program.