Comments on: Are fewer uni students getting Youth Allowance?

By: zowie

zowie — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:15:48 +0000

very interesting discussion. I am embarking on a study for my Uni course which is looking at the effects of Youth Allowance restictive criteria and particpation rates of rural students in tertiary education. Seems to me that the burden of having to move your whole life, especailly if it is not within a few hours drive, should be enough to qualify you for youth allowance, as you don’t have the option of going around the corner to study. Also interesting with the drought, and the loss of jobs in reginal areas - what if you can’t get a job to earn the 18K? I’m very interested in people’s responses, especially those who come from rural regions, and what effect this had on their decision-making.

By: Narelle

Narelle — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:50:57 +0000

It seems that if a student wants to become independant to gain youth allowance and your parents are in business, can they not just “put you on their books” and if you are not in business than what of those students??

By: Andrew Norton » Blog Archive » Reforming Youth Allowance

Andrew Norton » Blog Archive » Reforming Youth Allowance — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 01:35:17 +0000

[...] personal income test, where effective marginal tax rates of at least 50% start at $118 a week. As we have discussed before, many student by-pass the YA parental income test by qualifiying as [...]

By: Tarah

Tarah — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:47:01 +0000

Hello
Im 18 and I moved to the city to attend University but I am stuggling to afford basic things like FOOD…… I work 25-30hrs a week while attending University because I refuse to waste my life while waiting for Centrelink to declare me as independant. I don’t think it matters whether you are of a rural background or not. The only difference i can see is that parents in the city must earn alot less.
My mother is extremely disheartened when a single mother of two earns around a $1000 over the cut-off for me to recieve Youth Allowance. I think we should stop looking at what they get that we don’t, I am from the country but that doesn’t make a difference in my eyes. There is still poor and rich in both places.
The governments means testing should change….. I live over two hours from home to attend Uni that should be a signifier of independance not my damn age or wage. I earn less than 16,000 a year and I scrape by and I’m currently studying 2nd year at Uni.

By: Kittyn

Kittyn — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:46:24 +0000

I have now embarked on a year of three, maybe more, jobs in order to gain independence to get YA. my parents cut me off when i was 18, so im hardly ‘playing the system’.
what saddens me is that at the moment i am working at fast-food places, when what i want to be doing is studying medicine, so i can return, as a doctor, to rural australia.
a year might not seem too bad, but, yet another year without a local doctor is hardly beneficial either.

By: Yobbo

Yobbo — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 04:29:53 +0000

Independent youth allowance was the reason I quit uni and took a job in 1st year. Didn’t go back for another 5 years.

By: Club Troppo » Missing Link, Friday 6 July

Club Troppo » Missing Link, Friday 6 July — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 10:00:19 +0000

[...] both economically and politically free. Andrew Nortin, meanwhile, digs up some data showing that Australia’s university students are starting their courses older, as they use the buoyant employment market to work for a long enough period in order to qualify for [...]

By: backroom girl

backroom girl — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 06:21:03 +0000

These days you have to work during your time off to qualify as independent - you can’t do it, as you could once could, by “supporting yourself” on the dole.

I also think, given the financial commitment that students are now taking on through HECS, that it is a very good thing if they think carefully about what they want to do before embarking on a uni course. A year or two in the labour force is likely to be quite good for concentrating the mind, as they say.

By: conrad

conrad — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 05:45:37 +0000

BG:

I actually think its a good idea that students take a year or two off (on the caveat that they actually do something rather than sit on the dole). The majority of our top echelon of students always comes from these guys who are a few years older (usually early 20s). Its amazing how a few years without university can increase literacy, numeracy, etc. The main problem is that these guys have a higher drop out rate, but then, I’m not fussed about that.

By: backroom girl

backroom girl — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 04:07:44 +0000

Here’s a few examples of what we’ve been talking about.

A family with one child aged 15 and one parent earning $750 a week ($39,000 a year) has a disposable income of around $40,700 a year. That is, they are still net recipients of ‘government largesse’, but only just. I wouldn’t think anyone would call them high income though.

When that child turns 16, their disposable income drops to $37,500 a year, a decrease of $3,200.

If they are unlucky enough to have twins the drop in income is greater (around $3,860).

These are just simple examples - you can get much worse outcomes than that. For example, a family earning $1000 a week and living in rented accommodation would lose more than $8,400 a year.

Now, I guess if you have a general objection to government handing money out to families you might think reducing their reliance on the public purse in this way a good thing. But it would be a bit difficult to deny that reductions in income of this magnitude that happen at about the time when children enter year 11 could possibly result in adverse outcomes of one kind of another.