Contents
Student allowance : Contents

Market rent or outgoings

Eligibility

An eligible student will receive an Accommodation Benefit if they are not living with a parent in the parental home.

When a student is not living with a parent in the parental home, but is living in a home provided or maintained by a parent, they are only eligible for an Accommodation Benefit if:

  • they pay the market rent for the area of the home they occupy or
  • they are responsible for the payment of the outgoings for the area of the home they occupy

A home provided by a parent can include a self-contained residence on the property of a parent.

Market rent

A student is considered to be paying market rent if they are responsible for paying what is considered the market rent for the area of the home they occupy.

Example if a student occupies 1 bedroom of a house, and the market rent for that 1 bedroom is $100 per week, the student must be paying close to or more than $100 per week to qualify as paying market rent.

A parent must not be contributing to the payment of the area of the home they occupy.

Outgoings

A student is considered to be responsible for paying the outgoings in respect of a home if they are responsible for the payment of the outgoings for the area of the home they occupy.

Outgoings include:

  • local authority rates (including water rates charged by a local authority, regardless of how the rates are calculated)
  • mortgage payments (when there is a mortgage on the property)
  • house insurance premiums, excluding contents insurance (when the house is insured)
  • essential repairs and maintenance

An example

The outgoings in respect of a home provided by a student's parents are the mortgage, rates, house insurance, essential repairs and maintenance totalling $400 per week. The student lives in the home with 2 other flatmate's. The student would need to be responsible for the payment of the outgoings for the area of the home they occupy.

The student occupies a bedroom and shared living spaces, therefore it would be reasonable to expect the student to pay a third of these payments, $133.33 per week.

A parent must not be contributing to the payment of the area occupied by the student.

For more information see:

Accommodation Benefit
Living with a parent

Legislation

  • Eligibility for accommodation benefit regulation 9 Student Allowances Regulations 1998
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The parental home is the home where a student is living with a parent. They are not sharing accommodation with them.

There will be situations where even though a parent is living in the same home as the student, it is not the parental home.

There are a number of questions to consider when deciding if the home is the parental home.

Not all of the questions below will be applicable in every case. ...

A self-contained residence (whether attached or detached) is an additional residence on a property, which allows the occupant to live separately and without the need for access to the main residence on the property.

To determine if a student is living in a self-contained residence, MSD needs to consider the particular circumstances of the student’s living situation and how separate they are from their parent(s)’ main residence.

A self-contained residence will generally ...