Skip to navigation Skip to content

ABSTUDY Incidentals Allowance 010-02050080

Expand/Collapse all sectionsExpand all


This document explains ABSTUDY Incidentals Allowance. It is paid to students or Australian Apprentices to meet expenses associated with study/training in an approved course. These costs may be general purpose education provider fees, textbooks, equipment and stationery.

Eligibility

The student or Australian Apprentice must meet the eligibility criteria for one of the following awards:

  • Schooling B Award
  • Tertiary Award
  • Part-time Award
  • Masters and Doctorate Award

The above Awards include students who receive ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES).

Customers who receive another Centrelink payment, such as Parenting Payment Partnered, can remain on that payment and claim ABSTUDY Incidentals Allowance only.

Claiming

The initial Incidentals Allowance entitlement is automatically calculated and paid as part of a customer's new claim for ABSTUDY or ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement.

Students or Australian Apprentices can submit:

  • an online claim (tertiary students and Australian Apprentices only)
  • an Assisted Customer Claim (ACC) (tertiary students and Australian Apprentices only)
  • ABSTUDY Claiming Tool (secondary students only), or
  • a Claim for ABSTUDY Allowances and Part-time Award (SY021)

Customers who lodge any claim for ABSTUDY by the relevant closing date, do not need to lodge a separate claim to be assessed for Incidentals Allowance. See Claiming ABSTUDY for examples of when an ABSTUDY claim is or is not required.

Rate

The initial rate of entitlement to Incidentals Allowance is determined by the period of enrolment in the course, or period as an Australian Apprentice, during the year of assistance.

Entitlement is established by commencement in that course or Australian Apprenticeship and is not affected by early discontinuation.

The Process page contains information on how the rate of Incidentals Allowance is calculated.

Payment

Incidentals Allowance is not taxable, it is not means-tested, and entitlement is not affected by study load.

Where essential course costs are high, students may also qualify for Additional Incidentals Allowance.

Australian Apprentices are not entitled to Additional Incidentals Allowance.

Concurrent Awards

Where a student or Australian Apprentice is studying 2 or more courses, they can receive multiple Incidentals Allowance payments for the same period if receiving concurrent Awards, providing that only one of the Awards pays ABSTUDY Living Allowance or the Pensioner Education Supplement (PES).

Therefore, they may be able to receive Incidentals Allowance for each of the activities in the examples below:

  • A customer is studying a full-time course under the Tertiary Award and a part-time course under the Part-time Award simultaneously, so Incidentals Allowance may be paid for each course
  • A customer is studying a full-time course under the Tertiary Award and a second full-time course under another Tertiary Award simultaneously. Incidentals Allowance may be paid for each full-time course
  • A customer is studying 4 part-time courses simultaneously, each course under a Part-time Award (so 4 concurrent). Incidentals Allowance may be paid for the 4 courses
  • A customer is studying a part-time course in addition to undertaking an Australian Apprenticeship, so they may be able to receive Incidentals Allowance for each of these activities

Note: there is no limit to how many ABSTUDY awards a customer can study at one time.

The Resources page contains examples of how much Incidentals Allowance can be paid where customers have changed their study circumstances.

Rates and thresholds