Student Start-up Scholarship (SSS) eligibility 010-07030040

From 1 January 2016

SSS was replaced by a voluntary Student Start-up Loan (SSL), which must be repaid through the tax system once the recipient’s taxable income reaches a certain threshold. Grandfathering provisions apply for students who received a SSS or Commonwealth Education Costs (CECS) Scholarship before 1 January 2016 and meet the eligibility criteria for the Scholarship payment. See Student Start-up Scholarship (SSS) eligibility for information about eligibility for this payment.

Students who receive a SSS as a grandfathered customer are not eligible to apply for a Student Start-up Loan for the same period. If a previously grandfathered customer returns to a student payment after a break in eligibility, they may no longer qualify for the scholarship under these provisions, but they may apply for a Student Start-up Loan/s for the remainder of their course. See Student Start-up Loan (SSL) for information about eligibility for this payment.

From 1 July 2017

SSS will cease from 1 July 2017 for all customers including grandfathered customers. No customer should be paid SSS after 1 July 2017, unless they are deemed grandfathered as of 1 January 2016, and no SSS was paid in 2016 (two payments) and/or 2017 (single payment). If they meet these conditions the system will back-pay them automatically.

From 1 January 2016 a customer may qualify for the SSS if they are qualified for and receiving:

• Youth Allowance (YA) as a student, or
• Austudy, or
• ABSTUDY Living Allowance

And they:

• meet the grandfathering provisions, and
• are undertaking an approved scholarship course, and
• are not likely to receive a Commonwealth Education Costs Scholarship in the next six months, and
• have not qualified for a Student Start-up Scholarship, or equivalent scholarship in the preceding six months (this can be shortened to a period of at least two months if it allows a person to receive their next instalment around the time they commence their next semester of study, provided they do not receive more than two payments of SSS in a calendar year)

A person cannot qualify for SSS more than twice in a calendar year. Students whose course follows a non-traditional study regime, for example, where their academic year is divided into three semesters, will not qualify for additional SSS payments. These students will be paid at the same time as students with traditional two semester study schedules.

A person cannot qualify for SSS and a Student-Start-up Loan (SSL) at the same time.

Note: ABSTUDY customers who are undertaking more than one course do not qualify for a SSS regardless as to what course they receive the Commonwealth Education Costs Scholarship for. If they receive a CECS, they do not qualify for a SSS.

In addition to the above qualification criteria, there are also study requirements for SSS.

If a student does not commence the course of study for which the scholarship payment is made, withdraws from the course of study, or drops to a part-time study load within 35 days of the course commencing, they are not eligible for SSS for that period. See Scholarship study requirements.

See 'Scholarships (Relocation and Student Start Up' in Payment rates and thresholds for the current amounts.

Note: the SSS is also available to some students receiving a payment under the Veterans' Children's Entitlement Scheme (VCES) or Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act Education and Training Scheme (MRCEATS). Student Start-up Scholarship under these schemes is paid by the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA), not by Services Australia. Students should contact DVA for further information.

Customers are grandfathered if they received a SSS or Commonwealth Education Costs Scholarship (CECS) before 1 January 2016 and have been continuously in receipt of a student payment (Youth Allowance (YA) as a student, Austudy or ABSTUDY Living Allowance) since they received their most recent SSS/CECS payment. Note: ‘most recent SSS/CECS payment’ means the last such payment the customer received before 1 January 2016.

Students who had their claim for a student payment backdated prior to 1 January 2016 may also be considered grandfathered for SSS if they were eligible for SSS for a previous year/s.

The following situations do not create a 'break' in payment:

• the customer transfers from one student payment to another student payment (YA as a student, Austudy or ABSTUDY Living Allowance only)
• the customer changes from an approved scholarship course to a course that is not an approved, scholarship course or vice versa without a break in student payments
• nil rate periods of up to 6 consecutive fortnights (see below)
• an 'allowable break' in payment (suspension or cancellation) where the student is considered notionally entitled to payment for a continuous period even though the student did not actually receive a student payment during that time

Note: a person cannot be considered to be in 'continuous receipt of a student payment' if they receive another form of income support during a 'break' in receiving student payments.

Effect of non-payment periods on grandfathering of SSS

Some non-payment periods are not counted as a break in payment when determining whether a person has been continuously receiving student income support.

There are two types of non-payment periods that need to be considered for grandfathering purposes - nil rate periods and allowable breaks

Nil rate periods and 'allowable breaks' are applied separately when working out if a customer has been continuously receiving student payments. This means a person may have a nil rate period followed by an allowable break without affecting their grandfathered status.

Nil rate periods

Employment income nil rate periods (where the customer's student payment is current but their rate is zero) do not count as a break in payment for up to 6 consecutive fortnights. During this period, the customer is regarded as receiving income support.

YA and Austudy customers will be cancelled after 6 fortnights at nil rate, however some ABSTUDY Living Allowance customers may remain current at nil rate for more than 6 fortnights in order to receive other payments under the ABSTUDY Scheme.

For ABSTUDY customers, the person is only regarded as receiving ABSTUDY for the first 6 fortnights at nil rate. The 7th and subsequent fortnights at nil rate must be assessed as non-payment period under the allowable break provisions.

Allowable breaks

For a non-payment period to be considered an ‘allowable break’ for grandfathering, the student must be in receipt of a student income support payment (YA as a student, Austudy or ABSTUDY Living Allowance) both before and after the break.

If the customer has been receiving student payments for less than 12 months, they can have a non-payment period of up to six weeks and still be taken to be in continuous receipt of that payment for the purposes of the grandfathering provisions.

If the customer has been receiving student payments for more than 12 months, they can have a break of up to 13 weeks and still be in continuous receipt of that payment for the purposes of the grandfathering provisions.

Employment income nil-rate periods (where the customer’s student payment is current but their rate is zero) do not count as a break in payment.

A person may have multiple ‘allowable breaks’ as long as:

• each break does not exceed the duration applicable to the customer at the time the non-payment period started and
• the customer is receiving ABSTUDY Living Allowance, YA (student) or Austudy immediately before and after each non-payment period

Any period when a person was receiving an income support payment other than ABSTUDY Living Allowance, YA (student) or Austudy is not an ‘allowable break’.

A customer's SSS qualification date is the first day in the period on which they meet all of the qualification criteria.

New course

For customers starting a new course, the qualification date is the start date of their course (provider start date) or student start date, whichever is later. SSS will be paid with the customer’s first regular income support payment after the course commences as long as all qualification criteria are met.

There is no requirement for a customer to be actually studying on their qualification date for SSS. This means a customer could be qualified and paid during a semester break.

Continuing students

For customers continuing in the same course for the next semester, the qualification dates are set to a default study start date of 21 February for the first study period, and 21 July for the second study period. This is because each student starts studying on different dates for each year of study, and this information is not recorded on the customer’s record. However, if the customer loses qualification for SSS (for example, they withdraw from studies) Service Officers will need to check when the customer actually commenced studies in the relevant study period to determine if they met the scholarship study requirement.

Normally, there must be six months between qualification dates for SSS (or between receipt of a Commonwealth Education Costs Scholarship (CECS) and the qualification date for a SSS).

This period may be reduced to two months (but no less than that) if doing so will allow a customer to receive a SSS payment at or around the time they commence (or resume) the approved scholarship course for which SSS is being paid.

However, the period between qualification dates cannot be shortened if doing so will allow the customer to receive more than two SSS payments in a calendar year.

There is no restriction on the period between qualification dates for SSS and Relocation Scholarship (RS). A customer may qualify for both an SSS and RS on the same date.

Note: a customer may be entitled to retain a SSS if exceptional circumstances which are beyond the student's control prevent them from meeting the 35 day study requirement.

For the purposes of qualifying for SSS, a person is considered to be in receipt of YA, Austudy or ABSTUDY if at least $1 of basic benefit is payable in the period. Receipt of Rent Assistance (RA) and/or Pharmaceutical Allowance (PhA) or other supplements alone in the period do not qualify the customer for SSS.

This means that SSS is not payable if income reduces the person’s basic benefit to nil.

Higher education students who are studying an approved course overseas may receive SSS if they continue to qualify for YA, Austudy or ABSTUDY Living Allowance and at least $1 of basic benefit is payable in the period).

Some students may be offered an Indigenous Access Scholarship (IAS) from the university or higher education provider. IAS is a one-off payment to assist Indigenous students to undertake an enabling course, undergraduate course or graduate diploma. IAS alone does not preclude a student from receiving SSS in the same relevant period. However, students who receive IAS may also receive CECS at the same time which would preclude them from receiving SSS.

Equity or Merit based Scholarships do not preclude students from receiving SSS. However, these scholarships may be assessed as income. See Assessing Scholarship Income.

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