Proof of enrolment (POE) in a course of study 010-07010170

ABSTUDY, ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES), and PES customers require proof of enrolment where they are enrolled in a:

• tertiary course at a TAFE or a private education provider
• secondary course at an education provider other than a secondary school. This includes university, TAFE or private education provider
• Startup Year Course

Austudy and Youth Allowance (YA) (student) customers are not generally required to provide POE. However, Service Officers can request POE if needed to confirm eligibility for payment. This might be when there is doubt about their enrolment status, as part of a Student Payment review or when the student is enrolled in a Startup Year Courses.

Before completing updates in the customer's record ensure the correct system is selected.

For ABSTUDY, AIC and PES customers, code 'ISS' in the Sys field, and in the Next field either:

• 'SVABY' (ABSTUDY)
• 'SVAIC' (AIC)
• 'SVPES' (PES)

For YA and Austudy, code 'NSS' in the Sys field.

If the customer is now providing POE as requested, see Step 1 in Table 2.

If the customer's payment has been suspended for not providing POE, see Step 1 in Table 3.

To determine whether POE is required, go to Step 2.

Is the student a secondary school student at an approved secondary institution or an Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Scheme student?

Note: some ABSTUDY secondary school students attending boarding schools/hostels are subject to a process called Payment on Advice. This is not the same as POE. It is a separate process used only to confirm a boarding student's commencement date. For further information, see First day of attendance for ABSTUDY secondary boarders.

• Yes, POE is not required
• Check the information on the Customer Study Details (EDC) screen in Process Direct or the Education Course Details (EDC) screen in Customer First is correct, and only update if required
• Code the Enrolment Verification field on the EDC screen with 'VNR' (Verification Not Required) or, for PES recipients code 'VER' (Enrolment Verified)
• Record details on a Note/DOC
• Procedure ends here
• No, go to Step 3

Is the student studying a tertiary course at university or a higher education provider?

• Yes, and the student is:
• studying at Open Universities Australia (OUA), go to Step 5
• studying a Startup Year Course, see Startup Year Courses. Procedure ends here
• receiving YA or Austudy, studying a full time course at any university (with the exception of Open Universities Australia), POE is not required. Code the Enrolment Verification field on the EDC screen with 'VNR' (Verification Not Required), see Enrolment Verification field. Record details on a Note/DOC. Procedure ends here
• receiving YA or Austudy, studying a part time course at a full time study load, go to Step 7
• ABSTUDY, ABSTUDY PES or PES studying at any other university, POE is not required. Code the Enrolment Verification field on the EDC screen with 'VER' (Enrolment Verified) see Coding ABSTUDY education details. Record details on a Note/DOC. Procedure ends here.
• studying at TAFE or a private education provider, go to Step 4
• No, go to Step 4:
• ABSTUDY, ABSTUDY PES or PES student studying secondary non schooling level course, including preparatory courses offered by a higher education provider, go to Step 6
• All other courses, go to Step 4

Is the student, in receipt of, or claiming:

• ABSTUDY, ABSTUDY PES or PES, go to Step 6
• another payment, POE is not required. See Step 2 in Table 2

Where a student is undertaking study at OUA, they must 'nominate' a single course of study. The course details are required to determine:

• if the customer is making satisfactory progress in the course
• if the student’s undertaking full time study requirements are being met
• allowable time

For information and coding for students studying at OUA, see Eligibility for student payments when enrolled in Open Universities Australia.

Procedure ends here.

If the student is in receipt of, or claiming ABSTUDY, ABSTUDY PES or PES, POE is required.

• Tell the customer payment can be approved; however they must provide POE within 14 days of the course start date. Where the new claim was not finalised until after the course start date, the customer has 14 days from the date the new claim was finalised
• Code the Enrolment Verification field on the EDC screen with 'VRR' (Verification Required). This will cause the record to automatically suspend if POE has not been coded after 28 days from either:
• the study start date, or
• the date the new claim was finalised
• Once the EDC screen has been coded correctly, no manual intervention is required. The system will automatically suspend the payment
• Record details on a Note/DOC

Note: POE must include the student's full name within the POE document to be deemed acceptable evidence.

Procedure ends here.

Students enrolled in tertiary courses delivered as part time, with:

• flexible study options (accelerated or otherwise) - as noted on the website or handbook, and deemed fulltime, meet the student determination. No further evidence is required
• no flexible study options available on website or handbook, evidence from the provider is required to confirm the provider considers the student to be meeting their requirements to be deemed full time

If the provider confirms the student is:

• full time, the course meets the determination
• not full time, regardless of study load/hours etc., the course does not meet the determination and the student is not eligible

Go to Table 2, step 3.

POE can be:

• uploaded using Upload documents service
• lodged in person, or
• sent through the mail

Original documents are not required. Photocopied or faxed POE is acceptable, including online POE that has been printed.

Where the customer has provided original documents, ensure these are scanned and the originals returned to the customer by Registered Mail (if received by post).

In some cases, the POE will indicate the student is no longer undertaking qualifying study, for example, studying part-time or in an unapproved course. To determine whether the customer remains entitled to payment, or to determine the date that ineligibility commences, see Customer will not commence full-time study for Youth Allowance (YA), Austudy and Pensioner Education Supplement (PES).

Note: POE must include the student's full name within the POE document to be deemed acceptable evidence.

When POE is received for:

• PES, ABSTUDY and ABSTUDY PES:
• correct the existing Customer Study Details (EDC) screen in Process Direct or the Education Course Details (EDC) screen in Customer First entry by changing the code Enrolment Verification field from 'VRR' (Verification Required) to 'VER' (Verification Provided)
• correct any other education details as required – see Coding ABSTUDY education details
• go to Step 5
• Austudy and YA:
• go to Step 4

POE for these students is only required if there is doubt regarding the enrolment status of the student.

Is there doubt as to the student's enrolment status?

• Yes, go to Step 3
• No, go to Step 4

POE is required:

• Advise the customer they must provide POE within 14 days or payment may be suspended (if the customer is current on payment) or rejected (if it is a new claim)
• Request POE via Requesting information. A DOC will be automatically held on the record for 14 days
• If POE is not provided within 14 days, see Suspension of payments (if the payment is current), or reject the claim (if it is a new claim)
• Once POE has been provided check that it includes the students full name if not it cannot be deemed as acceptable evidence. See Suspension of payments (if the payment is current), or reject the claim on the 15th day (if it is a new claim)

Once acceptable POE has been provided, go to Step 5.

Check the information is correct on either the Customer Study Details (EDC) screen in Process Direct or the Education Course Details (EDC) screen in Customer First. Update if required.

Does the enrolment information require verification?

• Yes, consider coding the Enrolment Verification field on the Education Course Details (EDC) screen as 'VRR' (Verification Required) or 'VER' (Enrolment Verified). These fields may still be entered for Austudy and YA, however entry of these codes will have no effect as there are no longer processes attached to this field. Note: it is not mandatory to code this field for Austudy or YA. Go to Step 5
• No, for Austudy and YA, code the Enrolment Verification field as 'VNR' (Verification Not Required). Go to Step 5

Record details on a Note/DOC.

Procedure ends here.

• If customer has supplied POE, go to Step 2
• If customer has not supplied POE, go to Step 4

• If customer is still studying, go to Step 3
• If customer has ceased studying, go to Step 9

Customers may contact due to their payment being suspended because POE was not provided within the 14 day time frame. In some cases, the POE may have already been lodged and is viewable on Document Tools.

Due to varying workloads, this may not yet have been actioned by the relevant office for student claims.

Note: for ABSTUDY see Restoration of ABSTUDY payments

In these cases, to avoid potential hardship:

• Check the Document List (DL) screen for a reason payment has not yet been restored following receipt of the POE. For example, if POE showed an insufficient study load
• If there is no reason why restoration has not occurred, and the POE is simply awaiting processing, then the following steps apply:
• If the POE or the customer has confirmed the course is different to the one coded on the Customer Study Details (EDC) screen in Process Direct or the Education Course Details (EDC) screen in Customer First, refer to Changing or correcting course of study and/or educational institution for ABSTUDY students before proceeding
• On the EDC screen, update the following fields where appropriate
  Participation Status field, ensure the correct study load details are coded
  Enrolment Verification field, 'VER' Verification Provided
  Course End Date In Process Direct /Inst Course End Date  In Customer First and and Student End Date fields, as required
  Allowable Time End Date field, only where the customer will reach their limit of assistance, see Determining progress and duration of assistance for ABSTUDY
• Restore payment via the Benefit Action (BA) screen
• Finalise on the activity
• Advise the customer of their notification obligations for any change in circumstances
• Advise the customer that if the information they have provided is incorrect, then an overpayment may result (for example, customer is studying part-time but advised a full-time study load)
• Record a Note/DOC with details of all actions

Procedure ends here.

• If customer is still studying, go to Step 5
• If customer has ceased studying, end the current course of study. The record will remain suspended. To end the course in:
• Process Direct, go to Step 6
• Customer First, go to Step 7

Customers may contact due to payment being suspended because POE was not provided within the 14 day time frame. If POE is not on the Documents screen in Process Direct or Document Tools in Customer First:

• Check the Document List (DL) screen and if there is no sign of POE being provided, advise the customer they must provide POE in order for payment to be restored
• Check the Education Providers ORG CRN to see if the POE has been provided on the provider record
• Remind the customer they must do this within 13 weeks for their payment to be restored, see Restoration of payments (CLK)

Record details on a Note/DOC.

Procedure ends here.

• Go to the Customer Study Details (EDC) screen
• Select Edit next to the education line that requires updating
• On the Change Education Details screen, update the Student End Date to the date the student ceased studies
  Note: it is important that only the Student End Date field is amended. Ensure the Course End Date/Inst Course End Date field is not amended in these cases, as the Incidentals Allowance entitlement is affected if the Inst Course End Date field is changed. For ABSTUDY customers, see Coding ABSTUDY education details.
• Select Save
• Complete the Receipt Date and Channel. Select Save
• Select Assess and address any errors/warnings
• Select Assess
• Select Finish
• Record details of the update
• Select Finalise to complete the transaction
• Go to Step 8

• Select the course on the EDC screen
• Update the Student End Date field to the date the student ceased studies
  Note: it is important that only the Student End Date field is amended. Ensure the Course End Date/Inst Course End Date field is not amended in these cases, as the Incidentals Allowance entitlement is affected if the Inst Course End Date field is changed. For ABSTUDY customers, see Coding ABSTUDY education details.
• Finalise on the Assessment Results (AR) screen

Go to Step 8.

If the customer advises:

• they commenced study and were enrolled in the course either before or after the date they ceased, see:
• Payment of ABSTUDY when a student is deferring or discontinuing study before the end of the course
• Payment of Youth Allowance (YA) and Austudy when a student is deferring or discontinuing study before the end of the course
• Deferring or discontinuing study before end of course for Pensioner Education Supplement (PES)
• they did not commence study:
• For YA, Austudy or PES customers, see Customer will not commence full-time study for Youth Allowance (YA), Austudy and Pensioner Education Supplement (PES)
• For ABSTUDY, ABSTUDY PES or AIC customers, see Customer will not commence full-time study for ABSTUDY, ABSTUDY Pensioner Education Supplement (PES), Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) and AIC PES

Procedure ends here.

Check the Document List (DL) screen for a reason why the record has not been cancelled following receipt of POE, for example, if POE shows a different course. If there is no reason why cancellation has not occurred, and POE is waiting processing, follow procedure below:

• In Process Direct, go to Step 10
• In Customer First, go to Step 11

• Key START into the Super Key
• Select the Study and Scholarship Details workflow from the Task Selector
• Select Customer Study Details. Select Start
• Confirm the correct course, education provider and study load details are coded for the period the student was enrolled
• Select Edit next to the education line that requires updating, if it has not already been done
• Update the following fields:
• Student End Date: the date the student ceased studies
• Enrolment Verification: 'VER' - Enrolment verified
• Select Save
• Complete the Receipt Date and Channel. Select Save
• If the date the student ceased studies was after the date the payment was suspended, payment must be restored in order to pay any arrears owed to the customer
• Go to the Benefit Action (BA) screen
• Select Add to open the Create Benefit Action screen
• Complete the following fields:
• Benefit Type Code: select 'YAL'
• Benefit Action: select RES - Restore
• Date of Effect: enter the restoration date
• Select Save
• Select Assess and address any errors/warnings
• Select Assess
• Select Finish. Record details of the update on the Finalise screen
• Select Finalise to complete the transaction
• Advise the customer of any arrears paid, or if an overpayment has occurred

Procedure ends here.

• Confirm the Education Course Details (EDC) screen has correct course, education provider and study load details coded for the period the student was enrolled
• Select the course on the EDC screen and, if it has not already been done, amend the Student End Date field to the date the student ceased studies
• Update the Enrolment Verification field on the EDC screen to 'VER' (Verification Provided)
• If the date the student ceased studies was after the date the payment was suspended, payment must be restored in order to pay any arrears owed to the customer. Restore payment via the Benefit Action (BA) screen
• Finalise on the Assessment Results (AR) screen
• Advise the customer of any arrears paid, or if an overpayment has occurred
• Record a DOC with details of all actions