The Coalition’s Regional Education spokesperson, Senator Fiona Nash, said she’s concerned regional students are being misled about the youth allowance changes announced by the Gillard government last week.
The government finally saw sense and back-flipped on its 30 hour a week work rule that applied to inner regional students trying to qualify for independent youth allowance. They will now be subject to the exact same, and fairer criteria, that applies to students in outer regional, remote and very remote areas which the Coalition’s been calling for all along.
The government says it will also increase the Relocation Scholarship but does not state students receiving independent youth allowance are not eligible.
“That has been the case since the government first made changes to youth allowance in March 2010 and we’ve been advised by the Minister for Tertiary Education’s own department that it is still the case,” Senator Nash said.
“It worries me that, through the government failing to be upfront with the facts and subsequent media reports, many independent students will think they’ll be eligible for the Relocation Scholarship, leading to more confusion. Students from inner regional areas have already had a rotten time trying to qualify for independent youth allowance under this government. They don’t deserve to be misled.”
Senator Nash added independent students will still be eligible for the Start-Up Scholarship but that will now be reduced. It’s one of four savings measures to offset the cost of the government’s $265 million package announced last week. The other savings measure was deferring Youth Allowance eligibility for Masters by Coursework Students two years to 1 January 2014 which has also been met with concern.
The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations National President, John Nowakowski, said in a media release: “Students often transition from their Bachelors directly into a Masters by Coursework, and will find themselves forced to work longer hours to survive. There is already a significant reduction in students from rural and regional areas taking part in further education, and this will cause them to lose out. Combined with the loss of the relocation allowance, students will not take part in the way that the government hopes. Once again, the government has given with one hand and taken away more with the other.”
The $20 million Rural Tertiary Hardship Fund will also be axed, within 12 months of being established and just under two years before the program ends.
“The irony is that had this government not changed the independent youth allowance criteria in the first place, it wouldn’t need to spend $265 million on more changes to the detriment of other students. Yet another example of this inept Labor government’s hopeless economic management,” Senator Nash said.
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