Excess repayment of Financial Supplement Loan (FSL) 102-15010040

FSL was a voluntary loan paid under the Student Financial Supplement Scheme (SFSS) that gave eligible tertiary students the option of borrowing money to help cover their expenses while they studied.

FSL was payable only to tertiary students who were in receipt of an appropriate benefit.

FSL was payable only to tertiary students who were in receipt of one of the following payments:

• ABSTUDY (Living Allowance)
• Austudy
• Pensioner Education Supplement (PES), or
• Youth Allowance (YA)

In some cases, a young person may have repaid an amount that exceeded their outstanding loan balance. In these cases, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) or ATO who received the payment must repay the excess amount back to the loan recipient.

If a customer provides proof that the information held by Services Australia regarding their loan is incorrect, the customer should provide this evidence to the agency for investigation. Service Officers who receive this information should forward the details to the Student Programs Team. See Resources for contact details.

The funds for the FSL were provided by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). When the student applied for FSL, the student entered into a loan contract with the CBA for a contract period. All loans were administered by Services Australia until the end of the contract period.

During the contract period, a young person was not required to make any compulsory repayments. However, they could choose to make voluntary repayments. These payments could only be made directly to the CBA or Australia Post.

At the end of the contract period, the outstanding loan was transferred to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The loan then became a debt to the Commonwealth and is repayable through the taxation system.

All outstanding FSL loans have been transferred to the ATO, so the customer should be referred to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website for their latest FSL details.

Note: the final balance on all outstanding loans will show as zero on Services Australia's system. This does not mean that the loan has been zeroed off, just that the balance has now been transferred to the ATO for recovery through the taxation system.