Further Supplementary Explanatory Memorandum
(Circulated by authority of the Treasurer, the Hon Peter Costello, MP)Notes on amendment
This Government amendment is in place of request number (1) by the Senate for amendment to the Bill, which resulted from a non-Government request for amendment. The request was intended to extend the benefits that are available under youth allowance to full-time students (ie, those undertaking at least three quarters of a normal study load) to students undertaking at least two thirds of the normal study load in certain circumstances. However, the request was incorrectly drafted. This amendment puts the intended change into effect correctly.
The students who will benefit from the change are those who are undertaking, or intending to undertake, at least two thirds of a normal study load, because of either the usual requirements of the institution or a specific direction of the institution. The concession is available only for academic or vocational reasons, such as clashes in the timetables for the course, subject prerequisites not being satisfied or a subject being cancelled or over-enrolled. Otherwise, for example, a student may only have to have a 66% study load in the last semester of a degree if he or she has done additional units in earlier semesters.
Through these changes to section 541B of the Social Security Act 1991 , these students will now be taken to be undertaking full-time study, and all the benefits of this status will flow through to them, ie, the higher income free area, the income bank and access to student financial supplement and fares allowance.