Refund of payments after withdrawal

A student is deemed not to have received any Student Allowance payments, and therefore will not have the weeks for which they received a Student Allowance counted towards the 120/200 week or 92 week maximum entitlement, if they:

• pay back the total after-tax amount of Student Allowance payments and
• make that payment within 12 months of the start of the course (where the course duration was one full academic year), or before the end of the course in every other case and
• officially withdraw from the course before the final examination period begins

Repayment of any Student Allowance payments received can be made by instalment, as long as the requirements outlined above are met. Any agreement to repay by instalment must be confirmed by a signed written agreement that stipulates all the conditions of the agreement and the consequences of any failure to meet those conditions.

Once a signed written agreement is in place, a student is deemed to have met the repayment criteria set out above.

If a student fails to repay all the Student Allowances payments received within the required timeframe, then all assistance received by them to the nearest week, must be included in their 92/120/200 week maximum entitlement, and any money they have refunded must be returned to them.

However, any minor or inconsequential failure to meet the required repayment timeframe can be accepted, if in all the circumstances it would be reasonable to do so.

A tertiary student who meets the criteria outlined above does not need to meet the 'passing more than half' requirements for that course of study, as they are deemed not to have received those Student Allowance payments.

A tertiary student who withdraws from part of a course in any year, and remains enrolled in study on a part-time basis, and who meets the criteria outlined above, does not need to meet the ‘passing more than half’ requirements for that course of study, as they are deemed not to have received those Student Allowance payments.