Initial contact with students or Australian Apprentices claiming Youth Allowance (YA) 010-06010000

When a customer or person on their behalf, contacts the department to discuss lodging a claim for YA, Service Officers should first determine if YA is the most beneficial payment.

Has YA been identified as the most beneficial payment?

• Yes, go to Step 2
• No, see Identifying the most beneficial payment for students or Australian Apprentices. Procedure ends here

To determine if the customer has a partner, see Member of a Couple (MoC) and Separated under one roof (SUOR) assessments.

If the customer has a partner, check the partner's entitlement to income support and advise the customer of claiming options for their partner.

If no record exists for the partner, create a record.

If the customer/partner has dependent child, check whether Family Tax Benefit (FTB) is being paid. If not, for more information, see Initial contact by customers claiming Family Tax Benefit.

Customers and their correspondence nominee can submit a claim for YA by:

• starting an online claim. See the Resources page for a link to Claiming a payment online
• telephone contact to the Youth and Students line. See the Resources page for a link to Phone us - Student & trainees
• service centre contact. Customers are required to claim online for YA. In limited circumstances:
• a customer may be unable or unsuitable to submit an online claim, or
• self service transactions are not appropriate

Can the customer or their correspondence nominee, submit the claim online?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, go to Step 4

Unless contact has been made by a third party who is not a correspondence nominee or where system access is unavailable, use an Assisted Customer Claim (ACC) to answer the questions in a claim directly with the customer or their correspondence nominee, at initial contact.

Is the customer or the correspondence nominee available to complete an ACC?

• Yes, see Youth Allowance and Austudy student and Australian Apprentice online and Assisted Customer Claims
• No, only where all other options have been exhausted, can a paper Claim for Youth Allowance (SY001) be issued via online forms. Issue paper claim and go to Step 5. See the Resources page for a link to the online form

Advise the customer:

• when to submit the claim to ensure full entitlements are assessed from the correct start date. Different rules apply if the customer is identified as vulnerable. See Intent to claim and vulnerable customers to make this assessment before returning to this process. For more information on general start dates see Calculating the Start Day general rule
• an early claim can be submitted if the customer will qualify for YA as a student or Australian Apprentice within 13 weeks. Payments will not commence until the day the customer becomes qualified
• a student can be considered a continuing/intending student for YA if they were a full-time or part-time student in the previous study period and intend to enrol as a full-time student in the next study period. For new claimants, this may affect the customer's start date
• in cases where a YA claim is submitted for a child turning 18 years of age in the next 91 days, and
• the claimant is in full-time secondary studies, and
• a parent/guardian is in receipt of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for them, and
• the applicant will be eligible for YA,
  then FTB will continue to be paid until the date YA commences which will be 1 January, if the customer elects this date, or the earlier of:
• the day after the customer completes Year 12 or
• the date of claim if it is after this date, or
• the customer's 18th birthday
• if a student elects a 1 January start date for their YA to commence, FTB will be paid to the parent in respect of the student until 31 December. This only applies to students claiming between October and December who will be finishing Year 12 between November and December
• to provide the following when lodging their claim or to any service centre if lodging an online claim:
• identification, see Confirming a customer's identity
• Tax File Number (TFNs) and partner's TFN if applicable. See Requesting a Tax File Number (TFN)
• supporting documents as indicated in the online claim, Assisted Customer Claim or on the Claim for Youth Allowance (SY001).
  Note: supporting documentation, other than Identity Confirmation, should be uploaded online. For more information on supporting documents see Documents required for new claims
• they are entitled to receive an automatically issued Health Care Card (HCC) if they are deemed eligible for YA. See Health Care Card (HCC). If they require an immediate concession card, they can apply for a Low Income Health Care Card (LIC)

Advise the customer of the following:

• all customers (whether or not they are Workforce Australia eligible, for example, full-time students) can use the self service facilities to help them when looking for work. Explain and/or demonstrate the services available. For more information, see Eligibility to access employment assistance services through Workforce Australia
• information about other services and external organisations, if applicable. See External Specialists/Services available to students and Australian Apprentices
• the appropriate Smart Centre telephone number. Always promote the use of self service in the first instance for enquiries

Update the following details if required:

• ensure partner and customer records are linked
• record other relevant details such as supporting documents requested on a DOC