Prime Time Financial Counsellors Pty Ltd: Pensioner Education Supplement

Pensioner Education Supplement

Reproduced from Centrelink's "A Guide to Australian Government Payments 1 July - 19 September 2010"

Basic Conditions of Eligibility

Receipt of a Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs or Department of Veterans' Affairs income support payment because a person has a disability, is a single parent, carer, widow allowee or Widow B pensioner, or wife pensioner partnered to a disability support pensioner.
Studying an approved course at an approved educational institution.
Single principal carers and people with a partial capacity to work who receive a Newstart Allowance may be eligible for Pensioner Education Supplement in certain circumstances.

Residence Requirements

Must be an Australian resident.
Available to newly arrived migrants after 104 weeks in Australia as an Australian resident (some exemptions may apply).
May be paid for up to 13 weeks of a temporary absence from Australia (or longer in limited circumstances, e.g. if travel is to study as part of your Australian course).

Basic Rates

$62.40 per fortnight for:
- approved students with at least a 50 per cent study load, or
- approved students granted a 25 per cent workload concession who undertake at least 25 per cent study load and who are either Disability Support Pensioners or Invalidity Service Pensioners, or
- approved students granted a 25 per cent workload concession who undertake at least 25 per cent study load with a War Widow(er) Pension receiving an invalidity income support supplement.
$31.20 per fortnight for:
- approved students, other than those above, with at least a 25 per cent study load.

Fares Allowance

Fares Allowance is payable to tertiary Pensioner Education Supplement students who live away from partner/child to study.
Reimbursement of cheapest practicable form of public transport, regardless of transport actually used.

Income and Assets Tests