Skip to navigation Skip to content

Allowable non-award study for Austudy and Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) 010-04050090

Expand/Collapse all sectionsExpand all


This document outlines details of when non-award study may be treated as approved study for Austudy and Pensioner Education Supplement (PES).

Eligibility for non-award study

Services Australia will only pay financial assistance for study to those customers who are enrolled in and undertaking an approved course of study at an approved institution. A general requirement for the approval of a course is that it leads to some sort of academic award (e.g. Certificate, Diploma, Bachelor, etc.). A person who is undertaking non-award study would, therefore, not generally be eligible for one of the agency's payments for students. However Austudy and Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) customers may be paid for non-award study under certain conditions.

Non-award study that may count as approved study

A customer’s non-award study may count as an approved study load for Austudy and PES purposes where:

  • the customer has been accepted by the Education provider as a non-degree student in the first year or semester, and
  • the customer is guaranteed course enrolment on successful completion of the study, and
  • the completed study is credited to their degree study.

If all these conditions are met, the studies may be counted as part of the Austudy or PES study load.

Approved courses of study for Centrelink administered payments for students

Allowable non-award study for Youth Allowance (YA)

Assessing study load requirements

Satisfying the activity test for Austudy

Assessing qualifying study for Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) and ABSTUDY PES