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1998-1999-2000
THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
YOUTH ALLOWANCE CONSOLIDATION BILL 1999
FURTHER SUPPLEMENTARY EXPLANATORY
MEMORANDUM
Amendment to be moved on behalf of the Government
(Circulated by the authority of the Minister for Family and
Community Services,
Senator the Hon Jocelyn
Newman)
ISBN: 0642 435502
OUTLINE AND FINANCIAL IMPACT STATEMENT
There are negligible financial implications from this amendment.
NOTES ON AMENDMENT
This Government amendment is in place of request number (1) by the Senate
for amendment to the Bill, which resulted from a non-Government request for
amendment. The request was intended to extend the benefits that are available
under youth allowance to full-time students (ie, those undertaking at least
three quarters of a normal study load) to students undertaking at least two
thirds of the normal study load in certain circumstances. However, the
request was incorrectly drafted. This amendment puts the intended change into
effect correctly.
The students who will benefit from the change are those
who are undertaking, or intending to undertake, at least two thirds of a normal
study load, because of either the usual requirements of the institution or a
specific direction of the institution. The concession is available only for
academic or vocational reasons, such as clashes in the timetables for the
course, subject prerequisites not being satisfied or a subject being cancelled
or over-enrolled. Otherwise, for example, a student may only have to have a 66%
study load in the last semester of a degree if he or she has done additional
units in earlier semesters.
Through these changes to section 541B of the
Social Security Act 1991, these students will now be taken to be
undertaking full-time study, and all the benefits of this status will flow
through to them, ie, the higher income free area, the income bank and access to
student financial supplement and fares allowance.