Transfer to Austudy or Youth Allowance (YA) (student) from another payment 010-01020060

Customers wishing to have their eligibility for YA or Austudy assessed as a student must submit a new claim, unless they are already receiving:

• YA as either a job seeker or an Australian Apprentice wishing to transfer to YA as a student. For more information, see Youth Allowance (YA) job seeker or Australian Apprentice returning to full-time study, or
• Austudy as an Australian Apprentice and are ceasing their Australian Apprenticeship and returning to full-time study. For more information, see Customer no longer an Australian Apprentice

Claims for YA or Austudy can be submitted using:

• Customer online accounts
• Assisted Customer Claim (ACC)
• Claim for Youth Allowance (SY001)
• Claim for Austudy (SY002)

Note: the Re-claim or Transfer for Austudy or Youth Allowance (SY089) paper claim lodged with a Date of Receipt on or after 1 April 2023 are no longer accepted.

When claiming online, a customer claiming Austudy or YA may be selected for a reduced question set if they:

• are currently in receipt of a payment listed below (for example their payment status is Current (CUR) or Current Zero Rate (CZR)), or
• Age Pension,
• Carer Payment
• Carer Allowance
• Disability Support Pension
• Farm Household Allowance
• JobSeeker Payment
• Parenting Payment Partnered
• Parenting Payment Single
• Special Benefit
• Youth Allowance (YAL)

Claimants presented with the reduced question set for YA or Austudy will only be asked for information from the customer that is not known to the agency. The following question modules are presented to the customer:

1. Study Details

2. Circumstances

3. Payment Instructions

4. Scholarships

Students are asked to update their details via the My Profile page before completing the above question sets. On completion of the question modules, the Claims Summary page only displays the questions answered on the modules listed above. This also applies for staff helping students complete an ACC.

Note: full-time students and Australian Apprentices claiming YA and Austudy are required to use online accounts, unless the transaction is not appropriate. The relevant claim form should only be issued to a customer when all other avenues of claiming have been exhausted.

Services Australia is obligated to ensure that customers are advised of their options, where they may be eligible for more than one payment type. For example, a customer may be better off financially by remaining on Parenting Payment Single (PPS) and receiving Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) rather than receiving Austudy.

Once a claim is received, staff assessing claim transfers must ensure they are making decisions that provide the most benefit to the customer. For further information, see Identifying the most beneficial payment for students or Australian Apprentices.

Customers can submit early claims for YA or Austudy up to 13 weeks before the commencement date of the course, if they have not been studying and will be commencing a new course. In some circumstances, a claim that is submitted early may only be processed from date the student commences study, so it does not affect the delivery of the payment the customer is currently receiving.

If the customer is considered a continuing student and wishes to submit a claim, any potential entitlement to YA or Austudy will be considered from the date the claim is submitted. See Calculating the start day for Austudy and Youth Allowance (YA) students and Australian Apprentices claims.

If a customer has unused Working Credits or a Student Income Bank in the last 12 months, they may be eligible to transfer or restore their previous Working Credits/Income Bank balance to their new Student Income Bank opening balance.