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You are here: ABSTUDY > 6
Income and Rates > 6.8 Student Income Bank
This chapter explains access to the student income bank and higher income free area.
Note: Students who continued study in the same course from 1999 into 2000 had a one-off full income bank credit allowed for 1 January 2000 only.
The Student Income Bank allows a student to accumulate any unused part of their allowable income limit of $236 per fortnight up to a maximum of $6136 while studying without affecting their Living Allowance. It has been designed to reflect the fact that students generally earn income through the holiday periods, rather than throughout the year. The Student Income Bank operates by saving the unused part of the fortnightly income free area ($236) as credits. The saved credits are then available to offset the personal income/earnings in future fortnights.
The following rules apply to the student income bank:
Students have access to both the student income bank and the higher income free area on any fortnight in which they are considered to be a full-time student.
The following table shows when access to the student income bank and the higher income free area starts for students in different situations.
| A student who is | Has access from the….. |
| a new student |
|
| an existing student |
|
Exceptions
Students who leave a course before the course ends have access to the
student income bank and the higher income free area until:
The following table shows how the student student income bank operates when a student has ordinary income in a fortnight.
|
If the income is |
Then…. |
And….. |
|
Less than the income free area, |
subtract the income from the income free area to determine the saved amount, |
add the saved amount to the student’s student income bank credits. |
|
Equal to the income free area, |
there is no effect on payment, |
there is no effect on the student income bank. |
|
Greater than the income free area, but less than or equal to the student income bank credit, |
subtract the income free area from the income to determine the reduction for income, |
subtract the reduction to income from both the student income bank credit and the ordinary income. The effect is that there is no ordinary income for the fortnight. |
|
Greater than both the free area and the student income bank credit, |
subtract the student income bank credit from the income to determine the student income bank debit, |
reduce the student income bank credit to zero. The income bank does not run into minus amounts. |
Example
Adam has a $500 credit in his Student Income Bank. He has worked within
the last fortnight and earned $350. As this is over the $236 income limit, the
amount that Adam has earned has reduced his Student Income Bank credit by $114
to $386. This has not affected Adam’s payment for the fortnight as he had
sufficient Student Income Bank credit to offset against his earnings.
Students are required to declare their income every three months to Centrelink. Students with irregular income should tell Centrelink about their fortnightly income every fortnight, to minimise the risk of ABSTUDY debt. This is particularly important for students with no or low income bank balances. First entitlement letter will have a warning about the importance of advising Centrelink about changes to personal fortnightly income.
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Saturday, 23 April 2005
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