Are you on a benefit?
If you or your partner are on a Work and Income benefit and you want to start tertiary study, here’s how it could affect your payments.
On this page:
Deciding to study
If you're on a benefit, and you decide to study, it could affect how much you get. If your partner is on a benefit, they could be affected too. You could get less, and be unable to support yourself. It's important to find out how your payments could change before you decide what to do.
You may have to stop your benefit, and instead apply for the Student Allowance from StudyLink. Or you may be able to stay on your benefit and get extra help from Work and Income. It depends what kind of benefit you are on and what kind of study you want to do.
You may be able to apply for a Student Loan, which you would have to pay back.
You need to find out what will happen to your payments before you decide to study. You need to:
- Talk to your Work and Income case manager - you are required to tell them your plans.
- Contact your Work and Income case manager.
- Find out how much you would get, before you decide whether to go ahead with study. To do this:
- Read about how your benefit would be affected - select yours from the list below
- Take the What You Can Get online questionaire to find out what assistance you could get as a student.
- Use the Student Allowance Rate Calculator
- Talk to StudyLink
Talk to your case manager before you apply
It’s important that you first talk to your Work and Income case manager, and make an informed decision.
If you’ve had a discussion with your case manager and you decide to transfer from a benefit to study assistance, the first thing you will need to do is apply online. It’s important to understand that the majority of StudyLink’s services are online. You can manage most of your changes or details online as well, so you will not be allocated a case manager.
Definition of full-time study
Before we can determine if you are eligible for a benefit or a Student Allowance we will need to know if your study is full-time or part-time.
Whether you are considered to be studying full-time is based on an Equivalent Full-Time Student (EFTS) value. Your education provider will be able to tell you the EFTS value of your course.
