Youth Allowance Resolution

ABC News, 17 March 2010; The Age, 17 March 2010; The Australian, 17 March 2010

The Australian Government and Coalition have finally resolved a Parliamentary impasse over changes to student income support.

More than 150,000 scholarships will begin to flow to tertiary students from next month, resulting in exemptions for rural students from tougher eligibility rules.

Under the new deal:

• all retrospectivity has been removed from the draft laws, so that students working in good faith under the old Youth Allowance rules still benefit from changes
• the proposed additional workforce participation tests will be retained for rural and regional students. Students will now qualify for Youth Allowance by working 15 hours a week over two years or earning almost $20,000 in an 18-month period, so long as their parents earn less than $150,000.
• the government has reduced the start-up scholarship offered to every youth allowance recipient to $2128 once the scheme is fully under way, though the figure is just $1300 for this year.

Scholarship money will begin flowing to students from the start of next month. The new parental income test arrangements will come into force from the start of July.

There have been some critics of the deal, claiming that the changes are unfair for regional students who live in larger centres.

 

 

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