Reviewing entitlement to a Student Loan

A student's entitlement to a Student Loan may be reviewed by StudyLink at any time to determine if the student was or is entitled to receive payment(s). A review may result in a change in the student's entitlement.

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

It may be appropriate to make the change from a later date if the circumstances suggest it would be reasonable to do so. There may be a reason a student did not notify StudyLink of their change of circumstances. This may include a situation where a death of a family member changed entitlement, but the situation was traumatic and therefore notification did not occur immediately. Each case needs to be considered on its merits.

Note a review may identify that a student has not received their full entitlement. If this occurs, back payment of arrears should be considered and discussed with the student as they may decide not to incur further debt.

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.

When a student gets a living costs payment that they were not entitled to, and subsequently becomes approved for a Student Allowance or Benefit for the same period, the Benefit or Student Allowance arrears should be initially used to pay back the Student Loan MSD debt.