Students claiming Youth Allowance or ABSTUDY need to make sure they provide all supporting documents with their claim to avoid a delay in payment.
Transcript: Hank Jongen explains how students claiming Youth Allowance or ABSTUDY can avoid delaying their payment start date(DOCX, 16KB)
Transcript: Hank Jongen explains how students claiming Youth Allowance or ABSTUDY can avoid delaying their payment start date(PDF, 66KB)
Department of Human Services General Manager Hank Jongen said failing to provide required documents is one of the top reasons applications for student payments are rejected.
“Lodging a Youth Allowance or ABSTUDY claim may be the first time many students have interacted with the department themselves,” Mr Jongen said.
“We appreciate the anticipation of commencing tertiary education can be overwhelming enough, and have made this step a bit easier by providing a list of required documents at the end of the claim which students can check off before lodging their claim.
“Students should pay special attention to whether the department needs details of their parents’ income, which is one of the common pieces of information missing from claims.
“We need supporting documents to verify identity, make sure students meet all of the eligibility criteria and to calculate the rate of payment.
“Providing all necessary information to the department upfront ensures students will be paid from the earliest possible date as we cannot process claims without all the information.”
Mr Jongen said students can apply for Youth Allowance or ABSTUDY even if they have not yet enrolled in tertiary education.
“Students can lodge an application for payment before enrolling in their course,” Mr Jongen said.
“Once payments begin, students can use their online account or download the Express Plus Centrelink App to update their study details with us once they are confirmed.
“Students can continue to use online services or the app to let the department know about any changes to their circumstances that may affect their payment, including study details, income and address or relationship changes.”
Students can find more information about how to claim and keep up-to-date with their payment by:
- Subscribing to News for Students and Trainees
- ‘Liking’ the Student Update Facebook page
- Following @StudentUpdateAU on Twitter
- Visiting the ‘Information for students and trainees’ playlist on the Human Services YouTube channel.
Related resources
Image
Download image: DHS student reminder-January 2016 (JPG, 1,827KB)
Audio
Spoken by Department of Human Services General Manger Hank Jongen.
Download audio: Students claim reminder – Audio grab 1 (MP3, 353KB)
Transcript: Well in order to get paid from the earliest possible date, what students need to do is lodge their applications early. Once you’ve lodged a claim, we’ll tell you what the next steps are – and usually that involves providing us with support documentation.
Download audio: Students claim reminder – Audio grab 2 (MP3, 320KB)
Transcript: Look, students really should go to the myGov website and open an account. Once you’ve done that, you can download the smartphone Express Plus app for Students.
Download audio: Students claim reminder – Audio grab 3 (MP3, 261KB)
Transcript: Once a student has made a decision to study over the next twelve months, they should lodge an application. They can then provide us with the final course details at a later stage.
