May 20, 2015
Federal Member for Maranoa Bruce Scott says changes announced in the recent Federal Budget will help students from farming families in the South Burnett to receive the Youth Allowance.
“Australian higher education statistics show the further away you live from a city, the less likely you are to further your study,” Mr Scott said.
“(The government) will remove the Family Asset Test and Family Actual Means Test from the Youth Allowance Parental Income Test to make it easier for students from the South Burnett to access support.
“This 2015-16 Budget measure is set to simplify the parental means tests so more support will be available for families which help support their children who go on to further study.
“For farming families, this means farm assets won’t be counted toward the test for their children accessing Youth Allowance.
“Removing the asset test will enable about 4100 dependent students to access Youth Allowance for the first time – accessing average annual payments of more than $7000.
“The removal of the means test will not only give a further 1200 students access to Youth Allowance for the first time but also increase payments for about 4860 existing students by about $2000 a year.
“We’ll also change the Youth Allowance parental income testing arrangements to include all Family Tax Benefit children in the family pool. The current test only includes children aged over 16.”
Mr Scott said this change was a step forward to address the tertiary participation rate gap between rural and city students.
“Where you were born shouldn’t be a disadvantage and I’m committed to make sure our kids from the bush aren’t left behind,” he said.
