Reviewing entitlement to a Student Allowance

Reviewing entitlement

A student's entitlement to a Student Allowance may be reviewed at any time to determine if the student was or is entitled to receive any payments.

This may result in a Student Allowance payment being suspended, declined, or the rate of payment being varied.

This involves the use of discretion, including whether to review entitlement, and if a review is undertaken, from what date any change is made, and if applicable, whether a debt should be established.

When a review results in a change in payment, this will generally occur from the Monday of the week that the entitlement changed.

Making the change from a later date

It may be appropriate to make the change from a later date if the circumstances suggest it would be reasonable to do so.

When a student's circumstances have changed, there may be a valid reason MSD was not notified of the change immediately.

This includes the death of a student or a family member.

Payment of arrears

If it is determined that a student has not received their full entitlement, then any arrears owing must be paid to the student.

Debt establishment

If it is determined that a student received a payment that they were not entitled to, the students' circumstances need to be considered and confirmed to determine if a debt should be established.

A debt should be established if all the facts confirm one or more payments have been received where there was no (or less) entitlement, and it would be reasonable, considering all the circumstances, to do so.

There may be circumstances where establishing a debt would not be appropriate, including when a student who is not entitled to a Student Allowance due to exhausting their 200 week entitlement, may gain access to Student Allowance payments due to the establishment of a debt.

For example, if a debt of $200 is created, it would result in the student being entitled to a further week of Student Allowance payment in the future.

Due to the small amount, and the fact that the student has already had use of the money, the cost of recovering the debt would be more than the cost of the debt itself.

If a decision is made to establish a debt, debt write-off should be considered before recovery commences.