Assessing excessive travelling time for Youth Allowance (YA) at the away from home rate 010-06040050

Dependent YA customers may be eligible for the higher away from home rate of YA if they live or intend to live away from the parental home due to excessive travelling time.

Travelling time is taken to be excessive if the journey from the parental home to the approved activity or place of work by public transport exceeds 90 minutes. This includes walking time and waiting times between different modes of transport or legs of a journey. Restrictions due to lack of, or limited public transport should be considered.

In some cases this will be clear, for example, a customer leaves the parental home in Brisbane to attend university in Melbourne. However, in many cases it will not, especially in metropolitan areas. If a Service Officer cannot determine the journey exceeds 90 minutes via Public Transport sites, Rome2Rio, Google Maps etc, the customer will need to provide a detailed schedule of the journey.

A YA customer is considered eligible for the away from home rate if they only have a single journey exceed 90 minutes within a study period. For example, a customer may have lectures on one evening for a semester. The public transport timetable has reduced transport availability during the evening, resulting in a longer journey to travel home. If the customer can provide evidence to indicate that at least one journey takes more than 90 minutes, the customer may be eligible for the away from home rate for the period they are undertaking that evening lecture. In this case, the away from home rate would cease at the end of the relevant study period. If the customer wishes to continue receiving the away from home rate, they will need to re-establish their eligibility.

Assessment of the away from home rate due to excessive travelling time is based entirely on the location of the parental home.

Travelling time from the customer's away from home residence to the approved activity or place of work is not relevant to the assessment.

When parent(s) are overseas, care needs to be taken to determine if the parent(s) have only left the country temporarily. If so, the travelling time should be calculated from the parental home in Australia.

Note: If the parent(s) are permanently overseas, further investigation may be required. If the customer is wholly or substantially dependent on someone other than a parent, this person may be considered to be the parent for the PIT and away from home purposes. See Applying the Parental Income Test (PIT) for ABSTUDY and Youth Allowance (YA) for further information.

Secondary students attending a non-government secondary school, who claim they have to live away from home due to excessive travelling time, will require a check to be made to determine if there is an appropriate government secondary school less than 90 minutes travelling time from the student's parental home. If so, the secondary student can only bypass the government school and qualify for the away from home rate if exceptional reasons apply or the away from home rate if the parental home is isolated.

Tertiary students and apprentices are not subject to the same rule as secondary students regarding their choice of tertiary education provider or employer. If tertiary students or Australian Apprentices have excessive travel time between their parental home and the education provider or place of employment, and they live away from home, the away from home rate can be granted.

Note: students undertaking online study are not eligible for the away from home rate under this criterion, as there is no requirement to attend a campus. The exception to this is where a student was impacted by COVID-19.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, which occurred in Australia from March 2020, some tertiary students were required to leave their on campus term accommodation. Many tertiary students also transitioned to online study, as face-to-face teaching was unavailable.

Students who were receiving the away from home rate, and transitioned to online learning as a result of COVID-19 remain eligible for the away from home rate. Students must return to face-to-face study once available to continue to be eligible for the away from home rate.

Where a student had to move out of education provider accommodation (such as on campus) and are, or were temporarily staying with their parents, will remain eligible for the AFH rate providing they:

• remain enrolled in their course of study, and
• intend to return to their campus accommodation as soon as the education provider allows them to return

This includes students who had their accommodation arrangement cancelled by the education provider and moved their belongings out of that accommodation.

When making an unfavourable decision, speak to the customer:

• explain the decision
• give them a chance to provide more information, and
• advise their review and appeal rights