Coalition Amendments on Youth Allowance go to Senate

Coalition Senators will move amendments in the Senate to ensure that rural and regional students are not penalised by the Labor Government’s proposed changes to the Independent Youth Allowance. Senator Fiona Nash, Deputy Leader of the Nationals in the Senate and chair of the Rural and Regional and Transport Committee (RRAT) which has inquired into proposed changes to the youth allowance, said the amendments signalled a return to common sense.

“Amendments proposed by the Coalition will mean that the Government’s restrictive changes will not apply to students currently on their gap year. The retrospectivity of the proposals will be overturned so that more than 25,000 students on their gap year do not miss out on qualifying for Independent Youth Allowance.

“Other amendments will mean that students in the future are not restricted to working a 30-hour week for 18 months, which is close to impossible in rural and regional areas because of a lack of jobs.

“The Government want to remove two of the three workplace participation criteria so students on their gap year, who had acted in good faith after getting advice from Centrelink and careers advisers to earn around $19,500 in the year, would have been caught out. These students have left school and chosen to work for a year but had the ground rules changed mid-way through.

“The Minister, Julia Gillard, has back-flipped on this, but only for 5000 of the 30,000 affected students (those who live 90 minutes by public transport away from a tertiary institution).

“Another Coalition amendment aims to reinstate the gap year criteria of a total sum earned to qualify for Independent Youth Allowance for those students required to move away from home.

“We also support the introduction of an auditing process to ensure that once students have received Independent Youth Allowance they do not live at home while they are studying.”

Post Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Enter the code shown above in the box below

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail