Negotiating ABSTUDY Activity Agreements (ABAA) for ABSTUDY secondary students with unapproved absences 010-02090020

ABAAs are designed to focus the student's attention on their study requirements under ABSTUDY regulations, which includes their obligation to attend classes while being paid as a full-time student.

Note: these rules do not apply to ABSTUDY Schooling A students.

Absence from school does not result in loss of qualification for payment. However, a high level of unapproved absences is an indicator that the student may have ceased studies. If investigation of the case shows that the student has not ceased studies, they remain qualified for payment but may potentially be required to enter into an Activity Agreement.

The Compliance Team runs regular enrolment and attendance checks of ABSTUDY students in secondary schools to identify students who have had unapproved absences of more than 5 days in a term. Compliance processes currently focus on cases where the customer has had a high number of unapproved absences in a term.

Where local arrangements:

• currently exist to refer cases of excessive unapproved absence to a service centre/Smart Centre Processing site or attendance initiative team for negotiation of an Activity Agreement with the student, compliance teams should continue these referral arrangements
• do not currently exist, it is not necessary to undertake 'USE' reviews

An ABAA is negotiated using the ABSTUDY Activity Agreement (SY072) form. The terms of the ABAA should state that the student agrees to attend their course, and should include details of the:

• type of course (for example, Year 12)
• name of the institution
• student status (for example full-time)
• course start and end dates

The ABAA should also state that the student agrees to have no more than 5 absences in a term.

Centrelink systems contain a screen called 'Manage Activity Agreements for Students' which is completed with basic information about a student Activity Agreement. This screen can be used to:

• add a new student Activity Agreement record
• update an existing student Activity Agreement record, or
• delete an existing student Activity Agreement record

However, as this screen does not trigger any action, have any impact on payments or generate a printed full Activity Agreement the ABSTUDY Activity Agreement (SY072) form must be printed and manually completed when negotiating an Activity Agreement with these customers.