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Age Requirements for Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) 010-05060010

PES qualification date

This table contains information on determining Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) qualification date and coding for those customers that may not have reached the age of 16 years. Minimum school leaving age.

State or Territory	School leaving age/requirement	PES start age
ACT	Participation in full-time education, training or employment until completing Year 12 or equivalent.	Date completed Year 10 plus one day (if Independence criteria met) or 16^th birthday, whichever comes first.
NSW	Completion of year 10, then after Year 10, and until they turn 17, the young person must be: in school, or registered for home schooling, or in approved education or training (e.g. TAFE, traineeship, apprenticeship), or in full-time, paid employment (average 25 hours/week), or in a combination of work, education and/or training	Date completed Year 10 plus one day (if Independence criteria met) or 16^th birthday, whichever comes first.
NT	Completion of year 10, then after year 10, the young person must participate in full-time education, training or employment until they turn 17.	Date completed Year 10 plus one day (if Independence criteria met) or 16^th birthday, whichever comes first.
Queensland	A young person who has completed Year 10 or turned 16 will then be required to participate in education and training: for a further two years, or until they have completed a Queensland Certificate of Education (or Queensland Certificate of Individual Achievement) or Senior Certificate, or until they have completed a Certificate III or IV vocational qualification, or until they have turned 17 years of age whichever is earliest.	Date completed Year 10 plus one day (if Independence criteria met) or 16^th birthday, whichever comes first.
South Australia	A young person must be in school, training or work until they turn 17 years of age or have successfully completed the SA Certificate of Education or another qualification (such as the International Baccalaureate or TAFE Certificate II or above), whichever is earliest.	16^th birthday.
Tasmania	From 2020, young people must participate in education or training until they complete Year 12, attain a Certificate III or they turn 18 years of age, whichever happens first. Participation options include: years 11 and 12 at any government or non-government school, college, or tertiary provider, including an Australian School-based Apprenticeship being home-educated through registration with the Office of the Education Registrar a Vocational Education and Training (VET) qualification through any registered training organisation, including TasTAFE an apprenticeship or traineeship with an employer	16^th birthday.
Victoria	Completion of year 10, then after Year 10 and until the age of 17 they must be: in school, or registered for home schooling, or in approved education or training (e.g. TAFE, traineeship, apprenticeship), or in fulltime paid employment, or in a combination of the above for a minimum of 25 hours per week (study classified as full-time satisfies this requirement)	Date completed Year 10 plus one day (if Independence criteria met) or 16^th birthday, whichever comes first.
Western Australia	A young person must be in school, training or work (or a combination of these) until 31 December of the year in which they turn 17 years and 6 months of age or 18 years of age, whichever happens first. The options that are available to a young person in their 16th and 17th years are: full-time in a school full-time home-based schooling full-time enrolment in a training institution, e.g. TAFEWA college or private RTO an apprenticeship or traineeship a Community Based Course a combination program involving part-time school/training and/or part-time work full-time employment	16^th birthday.