Assessing a Claim for ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (SY020) 010-05030010

Qualification for ABSTUDY PES mainly relies on meeting the general ABSTUDY eligibility criteria and receiving a qualifying payment for PES. Receipt of the qualifying payment must be verified before the assessment can proceed. ABSTUDY PES is paid fortnightly. The amount payable depends on the qualifying payment the applicant is receiving and their study load. Customers must also satisfy basic qualifications in respect of minimum age, qualifying study, citizenship and Aboriginality.

Note: full-time Australian Apprentices are not entitled to ABSTUDY PES. Part-time Australian Apprentices who are undertaking qualifying study may qualify for ABSTUDY PES based on their course, as they can be assessed as a student and not an Australian Apprentice.

ABSTUDY claim processing is done in ABSTUDY Smart Centre Processing Teams. See Office Locator > ABSTUDY Smart Centre - National Processing > Office Messages > Office Notes.

Applicants completing a claim through the ABSTUDY Claiming Tool are offered a verbal declaration. A verbal declaration from the claimant that the information is true and correct will replace the requirement to return a signed Customer Declaration Form (CDF). Applicants who do not accept or have not been offered a verbal declaration are required to return a signed CDF where they are in receipt of a Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) qualifying pension.

Before 28 November 2016, all applicants who completed a claim through the ABSTUDY Claiming Tool were required to return their CDF when they were in receipt of a DVA qualifying pension.

Customers in receipt of ABSTUDY (for example, Living Allowance) who have just recently started to receive an income support payment that attracts ABSTUDY PES, may not need to lodge an ABSTUDY PES claim. See Claiming ABSTUDY to determine if a new claim is required.

ABSTUDY PES payments can be restored for customers transferred to JobSeeker Payment (JSP) or Youth Allowance (YA) who:

• were in the Disability Support Pension (DSP) transition group and assessed as having partial capacity to work (PCW), or
• are no longer receiving Parenting Payment Single (PPS) due to their youngest child turning 8 years of age, and
• were in receipt of ABSTUDY PES immediately before transferring to JSP or YA

These customers will only remain eligible for ABSTUDY PES while they:

• remain in the same category (for instance, have a partial capacity to work or single principal carer), and
• are still completing the same course of education or study for which they were receiving PES while receiving DSP or PPS

The closing dates for PES claims differ from other benefits administered by Services Australia:

• 31 March if the course is a full year course starting before 1 April
• 31 July if the course starts on or after 1 July, or
• 28 days from the date of qualification if the course is less than 1 year

To ensure the student is paid from the earliest date possible, they should lodge their claim by the closing dates above.

Note: for customers experiencing vulnerability or risk issues, see Intent to claim and vulnerable customers.

Many rejection reasons automatically occur after details have been input onto the system and some other rejection reasons have to be coded manually.

Where a customer's ABSTUDY PES qualifying pension or payment from Services Australia is not current, their claim ABSTUDY PES is automatically rejected

Where a customer's qualifying pension or payment from the Department of Veterans' Affairs is not current, their ABSTUDY PES claim is manually rejected.