Call for changes to income support

The federal budget will need to reduce student poverty if Australia is to build the workforce it needs to prosper after the global financial crisis, student groups say.
National Union of Students president David Barrow said that, after many years of neglect, the top priority for the government in higher education should be reforming student income support.

He said there was an urgent need to increase the youth allowance, with the maximum a student could receive at present being $371.40 a fortnight. And chief among proposed changes in the Bradley review of higher education aimed at broadening eligibility was the need to lower the age of independence from 25 to 22.

Mr Barrow said the government had set ambitious targets to increase participation in higher education but, without adequate income support, university study was simply not an option for many. "If we train our students properly, we're going to get out of this recession and bounce back even stronger."

The Bradley review found the average youth allowance paid to full-time undergraduate students had declined by more than 5 per cent in real terms over the past five years.
The average payment was $200 a fortnight but the money was not necessarily reaching those most in need, the review panel said. "Analysis undertaken for the review suggests that, as what appears to be an unintended consequence of changes introduced first in 1998, youth allowance is now being accessed by some students who are living at home in high socio-economic status households," the report said.

In order to divert funds to more needy students, the panel recommended removing workforce participation criteria from the youth allowance eligibility rules. "A particularly contentious provision is that students in this group can be eligible for independence by earning $18,850 in a recent 18-month period, or by working a given number of hours in paid work over a specified period of time," the panel said.
It highlighted the fact that the criteria could be satisfied by students from other than low socio-economic status backgrounds; for example, students who took a gap year and worked in casual employment or were employed by their families. The panel agreed the age of independence should be lowered to capture more students. The NUS is pushing for 21; the review recommended 22.

The change would give an additional 19,000 students access to the youth allowance and a further 5000 would receive a greater level of benefit for the relatively modest cost increase to taxpayers of $87.5 million a year.

The consensus is that the stipend attached to federally funded scholarships for postgraduate research students needs to rise from $20,000 (tax-free) a year and that all postgraduate masters students should be eligible to receive income support.
Three key reviews commissioned by the government - the Bradley review, the Cutler review of innovation and a parliamentary inquiry into the research workforce - have recommended an increase to as much as $30,000.
Our future workforce depended on graduates with the sort of high-level skills and knowledge acquired through postgraduate study, said Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations president Nigel Palmer. CAPA is seeking a minimum rise of 30 per cent.
"We're confident [a stipend increase] is going to be in the budget," Mr Palmer said.