Youth Allowance

[Carlton.No.1]

Hey, just wondering what you need to do to get a youth allowance

Im 18 and a full-time uni student, what other restrictions are there

I looked up the government site and it wasnt very clear

Thanks for any help

 

[BomberGal]

Depends on your parents' income, or if you have earned a certain amount of money in 18 months, which would make you independent of your parents' income.

Go to your nearest Centrelink office, there's plenty of paperwork to be filled out which you don't get online.

 

[jolimont]

you get it if you're
1. independant- hav earned at least 18 850 bucks in 2 years (earned, not saved)
http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/payments/ya_independent.htm
http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/payments/ind_yal_inc.htm

2. you're parents income is below threshhold

youthie is awesome good supplement beer money

just a pain in the arse to get it, tons of paperwork and visits to the centrelink offices

btw if you get it, you should try rent assistance as well

 

[gilbeegurl]

but if you get it, you cant earn over a certain amount (which is fair enough, but personally i would prefer to have more cash, even if it does mean working some hours)

 

[BomberGal]

but if you get it, you cant earn over a certain amount (which is fair enough, but personally i would prefer to have more cash, even if it does mean working some hours)

You do start out with 6000 working credits though, which means you can earn quite a bit before your payments are affected.

 

[marto9000]

lol get a job, mcdonalds will give you a bucket load of night hours to fit in with uni and weekends

 

[fairdinkum]

Actually, the website does make everything pretty clear if you are willing to read it all.

Basically

If your parent(s) earn below a certain amount, you will receive Youth Allowance. Unfortunately, that amount is ridiculously low - something like 30 k per year. In other words, most people won't automatically qualify. If you got Austudy or whatever it is called during high school then you will probably qualify, otherwise no.

In that case, you'll need to qualify as 'independant' from your parent(s). The most common way of doing this is to earn the required amount (about 18,750) in an 18-month period since leaving school. If you earn, say, $20,000 in 6 months after leaving school, then you have to wait for the 18 months to pass. If you earn less than the 18,750 (or whatever it is) then you miss out altogether. The other ways of qualifying are working something like 15 hours per week for two years, or some other similar thing. As I said, the first option is generally the most common from my experience.

So I went all of my first year, and half of my second year at uni just living off my Red Rooster pay. I don't get money from my parents so I lived on about $120 a week. Fortunately they give me a roof and food, so I managed fine. Now I've just started getting YA and I feel like such a bum - getting money for free. It is Heaven.

Now, once you start getting YA, there is a limit to how much you can earn per fortnight before it starts affecting your payment. Above $236/fortnight, you lose 50 cents from YA for every dollar you earn. Above $316/fortnight and it goes from 50c to 60c. In other words - don't bother earning more than $240 a fortnight! Note that they have this 'credit bank' system, but it is more applicable to seasonal workers than people like me who work the same hours every week.

Problems

The whole thing is a shemozzle, really. Here's a few reasons why:

1) A lot of people whose parents earn 'too much' don't get a cent from their parents anyway, and yet miss out on YA for at least 18 months.

2) To qualify as independant, you need to earn a heap of money - roughly a grand a month for 18 months. That is, to be given money, you have to earn a heap in the first place. Don't earn enough money? Well then you don't get given any. I just scraped through with about $19,500 in the allotted 18 month period. If I'd have earnt a grand less, I'd be living off $14/hour at Red Rooster for the next few years. The flawed logic in this system is rather obvious, I'm sure.

3) The cap of $236 a fortnight in earnings is a disincentive for people to work to earn extra income. Again, the flaw in logic is obvious. What is worse is that this limit hasn't changed since 1993!

More info

*As somebody said, there is a heap of paperwork to do. It is ridiculous. But then, that's the bureaucracy that is Centrelink for you.

*There are a couple of ways to... subjugate... the 18 months.

a) Get married. You automatically become 'independant'. Find a sheila in the same boat as you and for the low cost of a cheap marriage service, you fast-track the 18-month waiting period. I'm pretty sure that, even after your divorce, you are still 'independant'.

b) Make up a false story about your parents kicking you out. If you can convince them to go along with it, and get a 'witness' (a neighbour who is friend of the family or some such) to sign a form agreeing with the story, then you are in.

That's all the info I have for you. Good luck

 

[w00dy]

In other words - don't bother earning more than $240 a fortnight! Note that they have this 'credit bank' system, but it is more applicable to seasonal workers than people like me who work the same hours every week.

that's what I do... when i'm working during Uni i make sure I earn about $120 per week... that's 1 day a week at my warehouse job... if i work over summers I work full time, so I forgo my youth allowance...

1) The base YA payment (for a student over 18 living at home) is $234/fn - which apparently hasn't changed in 10 years! As you can imagine, things cost a lot more now than they did 10 years ago, but YA hasn't moved.

it does get increased annually... when I first started getting it i was on $220 a fortnight... now I'm getting $234...

3) To qualify as independant, you need to earn a heap of money - roughly a grand a month for 18 months. That is, to be given money, you have to earn a heap in the first place. Don't earn enough money? Well then you don't get given any. I just scraped through with about $19,500 in the allotted 18 month period. If I'd have earnt a grand less, I'd be living off $14/hour at Red Rooster for the next few years. The flawed logic in this system is rather obvious, I'm sure.

it is silly the way you qualify to become independent... i was lucky i got a good accounting vacation job over summer which allowed me to make about $8k over summer...

one way to get around this is to work out of high school for a year, earn your 18k then qualify half way through your first year of Uni...

 

[fairdinkum]

it does get increased annually... when I first started getting it i was on $220 a fortnight... now I'm getting $234...

Sorry, I got a little confused during my rant. You are right.

It isn't the payments that haven't been adjusted for inflation, but rather the amount that one can earn before seeing their YA payments reduced. That is, in 1993 $236 was the most you could earn - today it is the same.

Here is the link to an article which has this and similar information, from The Age's Education liftout last week.

Cheating - and the art of survival

 

[Benno_900]

Haha, I went through all that paperwork for them to tell me that my parents earn too much and I'll only be paid $32 a fortnight.

 

[Betfair Pro Punter]

I too agree this is a stupid system.

Im currently living away from home for the first time this year, and I have roughly estimated that I have earnt around $8000 in the past 12 months. So that rules me out straight away. If I earnt over $18,500 , I believe I would not need to apply for the Youth Allowance, as I would have enough to support myself. In my opinion, I reckon the $18,500 threshold is quite high for part-time uni students.

 

[KardiniaPark]

Haha, I went through all that paperwork for them to tell me that my parents earn too much and I'll only be paid $32 a fortnight.

You could take up smoking?

 

[BomberGal]

I too agree this is a stupid system.

Im currently living away from home for the first time this year, and I have roughly estimated that I have earnt around $8000 in the past 12 months. So that rules me out straight away.

How does that rule you out?

 

[Hooley McBoob]

**** me I hate Centrelink. I was on YA but they overpaid me - even though I was reporting the correct amounts - and then I had to repay the $1500 they had overpaid me.

Then when I dropped from full time Uni to part time Uni, I was no longer eligible for YA, even though I only had about 5 hours less of Uni a week. YA is supposed to support you while you're studying, so you don't have to work as much, but the amounts you can actually earn from a paying job while you're on YA are WAY below the poverty line. $236 a fortnight I think it is before they start taking money out of your YA. You get your money taken away if you work more (instead of bludging off the government). If you work less to help you study more, you will get the full amount from YA, which is also below the poverty line.

The best option is to live at home, qualify as independent, and get a job that pays cash - that way you will have the full amount from YA and still have a paying job Or if you're living out of home you can also get rent assistance. My flatmate has it pretty sweet, she works in a cafe for $15 cash an hour, gets the full amounts of rent assistance and youth allowance, and all together it works out to be the same amount she would be earning if she worked more and Centrelink docked 50c out of each dollar they paid her. So she is getting more money for less work - definitely the way to go.

Okay sorry for the rant. I really hate Centrelink

 

[sear]

yeh i earn over 236 a fortnight - not hard when you think that its only about $118 a week but im only on about $230 a week anyway (which is the result of 18 hours work!!) so i only get about $17 a week or something, which goes to my parents. problem is, my dad is on disability anyway and my mum is on minimum so they dont have any money to support me either. so basically im forced to survive on $230 a week which means working 3 days a week and being at uni 4 days a week (not to mention all the reading and other stuff i have to do at home) Im trying to save to go on exchange (kind of important when im doing a law/international relations degree) but yeh its pretty impossible to survive - i got glandular fever a few months ago and the doctor said i have to slow down - but its impossible.

its so stupid, its not like im a drain on society bludging off the system, yet there seems to be little incentive to work for yourself when you get no support for doing it and it seems easier just to live of the system

 

[w00dy]

It isn't the payments that haven't been adjusted for inflation, but rather the amount that one can earn before seeing their YA payments reduced. That is, in 1993 $236 was the most you could earn - today it is the same.

Here is the link to an article which has this and similar information, from The Age's Education liftout last week.

Cheating - and the art of survival

good article...

i didn't realise the amount you could earn hasn't changed in 15 years... that is ridiculous... i'm not on youth allowance at the moment as I just finished my degree, but i'll be back on it next year when I do my honours year... hopefully they change this rule, as I'd like to move out next year but I couldn't afford to do it only earning $120 a week on top of my youth allowance...

 

[fairdinkum]

So, um... who else is getting $1,100 this week for doing absolutely nothing?

Good ol' Heavy Kevvie: He might have been one of the worst PMs this country has ever seen, but even while out of the top job he just keeps on giving me more and more money.

Reminds me of the old Grampa Simpson line re social security: 'I didn't earn it, I don't need it, but I'll be damned if they're gonna take it away from me'.

 

[BarneyBent]

So, um... who else is getting $1,100 this week for doing absolutely nothing?

Good ol' Heavy Kevvie: He might have been one of the worst PMs this country has ever seen, but even while out of the top job he just keeps on giving me more and more money.

Reminds me of the old Grampa Simpson line re social security: 'I didn't earn it, I don't need it, but I'll be damned if they're gonna take it away from me'.

That's coming this week, is it? Thank ****, I need to pay my car rego!

 

[whelan=legend]

Them changing the independence from 18,000 in 18 months to an average of 30 hours per week for 18 months pretty much was the worst news I have heard in my life. I was so close to getting it too. ****ing hell.

 

[RoJo Junior]

I live at home, so obviously don't have it as badly as others... but I can't possibly comprehend how so many young people go through week by week with barely a cent to their name.

I managed to get the full amount from Centrelink (roughly $250 IIRC made a good figure to fund my gambling addiction) when first starting uni as only 1 of my parents worked (not that i needed it and had quite a substantial amount in savings from working on a regular basis for a year in retail). Doing a commerce degree with only 12 'contact' hours though it was a pretty sweet deal and managed to work 20+ hours a week.

Worked so much at times that I didn't get any payments, including one of the $950 payments, because apparently to qualify for that payment, you needed to be paid by Centrelink in that fortnight, given that i earned $550 for the fortnight I got nothing ... had i worked 3 hours less I would've been 'gifted' $950... the system is so flawed.

 

[HolyRioli]

Thankfully, once you have qualified for independence, you don't need to prove it again. I love the fact that I've been out of uni for a year (deferred), can come back and get my free money back on

 

[foley_falcon]

So, um... who else is getting $1,100 this week for doing absolutely nothing?

Good ol' Heavy Kevvie: He might have been one of the worst PMs this country has ever seen, but even while out of the top job he just keeps on giving me more and more money.

Reminds me of the old Grampa Simpson line re social security: 'I didn't earn it, I don't need it, but I'll be damned if they're gonna take it away from me'.

Why are you giving you the money? I'm going through the process of proving I'm 'independent' at the moment and hoping I can get this bonus too.

 

[rhinowce]

just sell weed its alot easier...

 

[Bert1]

Need to ask Centrelink1 about this....


Hang on. Wait a minute.


GRRRRIIIIIIIZZZZZZZZZZZ!

 

[lewigie]

Stupid ****ing having to work for 18 months full time before getting youth allowance. **** off. To go to university I have to move to Perth, or travel up there ****ing daily. How the **** am I supposed to do that?