Assessing satisfactory progress for Youth Allowance (YA) tertiary students 010-06070070

Students will not always maintain a steady workload for the duration of a course. A full-time student may choose to do some of the course on a part-time basis and vice versa. Each section of the course should be looked at separately if possible.

Most courses are divided into academic periods. The standard divisions are:

• whole years
• semesters (that is, 2 periods per year), or
• trimesters (that is, 3 periods per year)

It is easy to look at each period separately in these cases, but some courses, particularly those offered by private providers, do not have any divisions. These types of courses often have a rolling start date (for example, the course starts any Monday) and will finish a set number of weeks later. In these cases, the course is looked at as a whole.

The general rule for YA is that a student can continue to be paid up to the point at which they should have completed the course. For example, a student in a three year bachelor degree who has already completed three and a half years of study in that course would be expected to have completed the course. Note: the delay in completing the course is not always the fault of the student. For this reason, an allowance is made to disregard some, or all, earlier study, in certain circumstances.

The following periods can be disregarded:

• A failed year (or part of a year), if failure was due to illness or other special circumstances beyond the control of the student. Note: evidence must be obtained from the customer. For further information, see the Resources page in Disregarding previous study for Youth Allowance (YA)
• Study from which the student withdrew, if the institution did not count that withdrawal as a failure

To calculate the total amount of study for a number of academic periods, it is easiest to measure each period as a percentage of a whole academic year. Therefore, a semester's full-time workload equals 50% of a year, a trimester's 33.3% and so on. If the study in a period is part-time, the appropriate fraction is used. For example, if a student undertakes two subjects out of the usual four in a semester, this equals 25% of a full year's study.

If a student overloads in a semester or year, it is counted as 50% (0.5) or 100% (1.0) respectively, and not the overloaded figure. For example, if a customer undertook 125% of the normal full-time workload in a year, it is counted as 100% (1.0) of the workload.

A student who is undertaking at least 75% of the normal workload (or 66%, if a study load concession is granted) in a period is considered to be a full-time student for payment purposes. They are also counted as a full-time student for previous study calculations. For example, a study load of four of the normal five subjects in a semester counts as 50% of the year's workload (not 40%).

Where study load aggregation is applied to satisfy full-time study requirements, all study periods included in the aggregation assessment are counted as full-time. For example, a student is part-time (0.25 EFTSL) in semester one and full-time (0.50 EFTSL) in semester two. An aggregation assessment is completed and the customer is paid as a full-time student for both semesters. This equals 0.750 EFSTL, allowing the customer to meet the satisfactory progress rules as they have been undertaking an aggregated full time study load over the year.

The result of the calculation of satisfactory progress can be used to determine when the time allowed to complete the course is expected to end and entitlement cease.

Satisfactory progress is determined on the enrolment day of the course (students in multi-year courses effectively re-enrol each semester) or at the end of the study period. This means that on enrolment day a student who has any allowable time remaining (however little) may be paid up to the end of that study period. If there is allowable time remaining at that point, then payment could continue after that. A student can therefore be told, for example, that they may be eligible for two years but after that, further payment could not be made for the current course.

The following examples are using the percentage calculation in Step 3:

Scenario 1: Yuki is completing a two year TAFE course, which has an allowable time of 2.333 years (minimum time plus one additional study period). The course is divided into trimesters. Each trimester is 33.3%. Yuki has been assessed as previously completing 1.1 years of this course. At enrolment day this year, the time already spent studying this course is under allowable time, so Yuki is eligible for payment for this year of study.

After this full year's study, the time spent in study for this course will have reached 2.1 years, which is still under allowable time. However, if Yuki fails some of the subjects, they may need more time to complete the course. Yuki still has another year to complete the course and re-enrols next year.

Yuki will not have reached 2.333 years of study until some point during the second trimester of the third year. Because Yuki has completed 2.1 years of the course and re-enrols for a third year, they are eligible to study for another 0.233 of a year of the course. The first study trimester is 0.3 of a year or 33.3%. At the end of the first trimester of the third year of study, Yuki has completed 2.4 years of their allowable time of 2.333 years. During the first trimester, they exceed the allowable time for this course. Yuki remains payable until the end of that study period. Services Australia would not reconsider allowable time until the end of that second trimester. At that point, Yuki's entitlement would cease.

Upon initial application, Yuki should be informed that payments may not continue after the second trimester of the third year.

Scenario 2: Charlie is undertaking a Bachelor of Arts degree at university, which has a minimum duration of 3 years and an allowable time of 3.5 years. Charlie’s university delivers courses to an academic calendar based on 2 semesters per year.

Charlie was studying the course full-time for 3 years, needing to repeat some subjects. Following year 3, Charlie decided to reduce to a part-time study-load (50% of their semester study-load, or 25% of their year’s study-load) at the beginning of the current semester.

At the end of this semester, the total time spent in the course is 3.25 years, which is less than the 3.5 years allowable time. As the allowable time has not been reached, Charlie is eligible for payment for another semester.

If Charlie returns to full-time study in the next semester, the total time spent in the course will be 3.75 years at the end of the semester. At that point, Charlie’s entitlement will cease.

If a full-time student withdraws from a course and wants to do a second course at the same level for which the normal duration is one year or less, then the student can receive YA if the course can improve their employment prospects.

If the student withdrew for reasons beyond their control, they may start the second course without any loss of satisfactory progress time allowed, and the time is reset. Note: evidence must be obtained from the customer to verify this. For further information, see Disregarding previous study for Youth Allowance (YA).

For students advising via the update study details online service or in person, if no special circumstances exist then the student must enter into an Activity Agreement (as a full-time student) with an obligation to complete the second course within the time allowed for that course. This will need to be arranged manually, see Activity Agreements for Youth Allowance (YA) students.

If the student lodges an online claim or ACC and advised of one previous incomplete course at the same level, a digital AA assessment will be created by the claim based on student’s answers to the questions:

• the customer withdrew from or failed the course, and
• whether the withdrawal or failure was due to exceptional circumstances

The student is required to sign an Activity Agreement (as a full-time student) with an obligation to compete the third or subsequent course within the satisfactory progress time for that course.

For students advising via the update study details online service or in person, if no special circumstances exist then the student must enter into an Activity Agreement (as a full-time student) with an obligation to complete the third or subsequent course within the time allowed for that course.

If the student lodges a claim and advised of two or more previous incomplete courses at the same level, the online claim will not be able to identify if the student is returning to a course they have previously studied. In these cases, processing staff will need to determine if an agreement is required.

The student can be deemed to be making satisfactory progress in the second course if the course is completed within the allowable time for that course.

Satisfactory progress time may also be reset for the second course if the student failed the first course for reasons beyond their control. Note: evidence must be obtained from the customer to verify this. For further information, see Disregarding previous study for Youth Allowance (YA).

The student can do a third course at the same level only if the reason they failed the second course was for reasons beyond their control. Note: evidence must be obtained from the customer to verify this. For further information, see Disregarding previous study for Youth Allowance (YA). The student must enter into an Activity Agreement as a full-time student stating they will complete their course within the satisfactory progress time allowed for that course and the time is reset for the third course.

Where the student has not been affected by reasons beyond their control, they need to test their eligibility for another payment.