Fares Allowance (FAA) authorised in advance of travel for Youth Allowance (YA), Austudy and Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) 010-04060040

FAA is normally paid by reimbursement. In certain circumstances, the travel can be pre-booked for the student. Students can have their long distance travel booked for airfares, rail or bus.

Travel can only be pre-booked for eligible YA, Austudy and PES students who meet the eligibility requirements for FAA. FAA is not available to Australian Apprentices or students who travel outside of Australia to undertake study.

There is no rule allowing rejection of pre-booked travel if the customer has capacity to pay for travel in advance.

If a student incurs additional travel costs, for example a taxi or bus fare, to travel from their term address to the airport, they can lodge a separate claim for reimbursement of these expenses after they have completed the trip.

FAA is reimbursed at the cheapest, most practicable, mode of transport. When booking a flight on behalf of a customer, the Service Officer must therefore select the cheapest level of economy fare (for example, saver lite, saver or flexi) available for travel on the day that provides one seat plus the necessary baggage requirement.

As Services Australia does not have a preferred airline carrier, the Service Officer should make this booking without regard to the carrier.

Determining whether the cost of a mode of transport is reasonable depends on the circumstances.

FAA will cover reasonable costs of transport by a private vehicle, if:

• living necessities or personal belongings, such as essential kitchenware and bedding, need to be transported by the student from their family or permanent home in order to undertake study, and
• it is not practicable to transport the items by public transport (for example, due to strict luggage limits or the amount of luggage is difficult to manoeuvre)

As each journey is to be assessed separately, travel considered reasonable for two different journeys along the same route for the same student may differ.

For example, travel by public transport may be reasonable for a particular route except where:

• the student has a large amount of essential luggage, and
• private transport is:
• cheaper, or
• the only practicable method

The following travel costs would not be covered by FAA:

• airport parking fees
• manual check-in fees
• SMS itinerary costs
• travel insurance, or
• entertainment bundles
• seat allocation
• accommodation

FAA can generally be paid to students to cover the cost of one standard piece of checked in luggage.

If an airline charges extra for one piece of luggage, FAA may be paid for this luggage. This applies whether the person has pre-booked the fare and luggage together, or the luggage is purchased at the time of check-in.

Note: in some cases, FAA may cover additional luggage costs, where the cost of the excess baggage for a flight is needed to transport living necessities or personal belongings, such as essential kitchenware. While it would be reasonable to expect a student may need excess baggage if they are moving to a premises for the first time, it would not be reasonable for excess baggage to be booked if they are returning home for a holiday period and maintaining their residence where they study. FAA may also cover excess baggage costs to transport necessary course equipment. For example, a music student has to transport their musical instrument, as they need it for their course of study.

The agency will try to accommodate customer requests when booking travel for customers in advance. However, this is not always possible because of a range of reasons, including:

• preferred mode and time of travel not being available, or
• there is a cheaper and more practicable mode of travel available on that route

In the normal course of events, it is expected that Service Officers will contact the customer to tell them of the proposed travel plans that will be arranged. This would be the case if the student has requested one mode of travel, for example a flight, however, the Service Officer has found a cheaper mode of transport on the same route, such as a train or bus. As part of this contact, the Service Officer will need to decide if there are extenuating factors. For example, illness or incapacity that may make air travel essential. In some cases, more details may be needed from the student before travel arrangements can be finalised.

If the student does not agree with the decision to grant a lower pre-booked fare for FAA, they should be advised of their review and appeal rights. However, the formal review may not be completed before the student's requested travel date. This should be clearly explained to the customer.

Students/Nominees can make travel variation or cancellation requests to Services Australia.

Approval of requests to vary pre-booked travel occurs only if the variation or cancellation relates to unforeseen or exceptional circumstances.

Each request is to be determined on its own merits. For further information, see Table 2 on the Process page

When an unfavourable decision is to be made, a Decision Maker (DM):

• must provide the customer with an explanation of the decision, and
• an opportunity to provide more details or evidence relevant to the decision

The DM must also tell the customer of their review and appeal rights and if needed, record a request for a review of the decision. This includes unfavourable decisions made by Service Officers within Smart Centre Call.

If a DM is not speaking with a customer at the time of making a decision, they are required to make 2 genuine attempts to contact a customer before finalising an unfavourable decision.

For more details, see Initial contact about a decision and the review of decision process.

There is no rule allowing rejection of pre-booked travel if the customer has capacity to pay for travel in advance. Currently the Fares Allowance script asks if the customer has $5,000 funds available. This question should be ignored, as it has no basis in legislation or policy.