Qualifying payments for Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) and ABSTUDY PES 010-05060020

To qualify for PES or ABSTUDY PES a customer must be in receipt of one of the following Social Security or Department of Veterans' Affairs payments.

Social Security payments

• Carer Payment (CP)
• Disability Support Pension (DSP) including Disability Support Pension Blind (DSB)
• Parenting Payment (PP) (single)
• JobSeeker Payment (JSP), as a single principal carer
• JobSeeker Payment (JSP), or Youth Allowance (YA) (Other) with a partial capacity to work (for ABSTUDY PES only)
• Special Benefit, if the person is a single parent

Note: Jobseeker Payment (JSP), as a single principal carer can apply to ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement as a qualifying payment when certain criteria has been met. See ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) qualifications

Some customers can continue to receive PES after transferring to another payment.

There are 2 groups of customers who can continue to receive PES even though they are no longer receiving an eligible payment. For all other customers, PES will stop when the qualifying payment stops.

Customers who were granted PES when they were receiving:

• DSP will retain eligibility if all of the following apply. They:
• claimed PES after 1 July 2006
• are still completing the same course of education or study
• lost eligibility for DSP as a result of a review after 1 July 2006
• transferred from DSP directly to JSP, Youth Allowance (YA) (other) or PP (partnered) because of the review
• have a partial capacity to work
• Widow B or Wife Pension will retain eligibility if both of the following apply. They:
• transferred to JSP on 20 March 2020 directly from Widow B Pension or Wife Pension. Note: only Wife Pension customers with a partner receiving DSP were eligible for PES
• are still completing the same course of education or study

Veterans' Affairs (DVA) payments

• Invalidity Service Pension
• Partner Service Pension, and the customer's partner receives Invalidity Service Pension
• Carer Service Pension
• Income Support Supplement
• Veteran Payment

Customers may also qualify for PES if they have a dependent child and receive one of the following payments:

• War Widow/ers Pension
• Disability Pension (including TPI)
• Wholly Dependant Partner payment
• Ongoing Permanent Impairment payment
• Special Rate Disability Pension

Note: Qualifications for Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Scheme PES are slightly different and this procedure does not apply.

The type of qualifying payment the customer receives is also taken into account when assessing study loads for the purpose of determining eligibility for Pensioner Education Supplement (PES). Additional criteria also apply for ABSTUDY see eligibility for ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES).