How income affects Student Allowance

If you don’t tell us about your income we may pay you too much and you’ll have a debt to pay back.

How income affects your payments

After this, your Student Allowance reduces cent for cent.

Example

Your Student Allowance weekly payment is $342.82 (after tax) or $392.70 (before tax). You worked last week and earned $350 (before tax).

We don't count $258.08 (before tax) as income, but the rest of your earnings, that is $91.92 (before tax), will be counted as income.

This means your Student Allowance payment will be reduced by $91.92 (before tax).

If you have a partner

When you're in a recognised relationship, how much you get for a Student Allowance is based on your income and your partner's income.

Below is a guideline for what you could get based on your income and your partner's income and other circumstances.

Combined weekly income before tax is:	You might be able to get between:
$516.16 or less	$300 - $630 a week after tax
Between $516.16 and $1,074.94	$179 - $255 a week after tax
$1,074.94 or more	You can't get a Student Allowance

If you're getting a Student Allowance and your personal income is over $258.08 a week before tax, your weekly rate will then further reduce cent for cent.

Example

You work part-time and earn $350 a week (before tax). Your partner gets $50 a week (before tax), so your total income is $400 a week (before tax).

This means you could get between $300-$630 a week for Student Allowance, due to your combined income.

As you earn $350 a week (before tax), we don't count $258.08 (before tax) as income, but the rest of your earnings, that is $91.92 (before tax), will be counted as income.

This means your Student Allowance payment will be further reduced by $91.92 (before tax).

If you get Accommodation Benefit

Your Accommodation Benefit payment will stay the same, even if your Student Allowance payment goes down. But if your Student Allowance payment stops, your Accommodation Benefit will stop as well.

If you get Student Loan living costs

Your living costs payment reduces by the amount of Student Allowance you get. So if your Student Allowance payment goes down, this amount may increase.

How to tell us

You need to let us know by the Sunday of the week you earn the money, not the week you've been paid.

We'll work out what your Student Allowance payment will be in the following week. It affects the following week's payment because we pay for the week that's just been.

You can update your income online, in MyStudyLink.

If you have a partner who is:

• getting a Student Allowance, they can update their income in their own MyStudyLink account
• not getting a Student Allowance, they can email us or call us

If you get holiday pay:

Holiday pay is counted as income for the week that you get it. If it's paid:

• as part of your weekly income (including when you're on annual leave), you need to tell us the total amount of income you get each week
• as a lump sum after you leave your job, you need to tell us the total amount you get for the week that you get it.

If we ask you to provide evidence of your income, you can upload it using Connect