STUDENT ASSISTANCE
Austudy is provided to students aged 25 years and over, while the Youth Allowance is provided to students under 25 years. Both Austudy and Youth Allowance are designed to aid full-time students with living costs while they are studying.
At July 2006, 5,210 students at educational institutions in the ACT were receiving financial assistance. Austudy assistance went to 446 students (9%), while 4,540 were receiving Youth Allowance (87%). The number of students receiving Austudy in July 2006 was down 13% on July 2005 while the number receiving Youth Allowance was down by 9%.
ABStudy provides a means-tested living allowance and other supplementary benefits to eligible Indigenous secondary and tertiary students. Primary students living at home and aged 14 years or more on 1 January in the year of study may also be eligible for assistance.
At July 2006, there were 224 students receiving ABStudy in the ACT (4% of all students receiving assistance). This was the same proportion as in July 2005.
6.11 Students receiving financial assistance for education(a), ACT Federal Electorates(b) - As at 1 July |
|  |
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | |
| no. | no. | no. | |
| |
| Austudy | 679 | 506 | 446 | |
| Youth Allowance | 5 292 | 4 936 | 4 540 | |
| ABStudy | 389 | 222 | 224 | |
| Total | 6 360 | 5 664 | 5 210 | |
| |
| (a) These data relate to snapshots of Centrelink customers at a specific point in time. Customer details are associated with Federal Electorate Areas based on address details provided to Centrelink. Since a small proportion (approximately 2%) of addresses are unable to be mapped to specific electorates, customer numbers for Electorates may be slightly under-counted and cannot be compared directly with other Centrelink data. |
| (b) For the purposes of this table, comprises the Federal Electorates of Canberra and Fraser. |
| Department of Human Services, Electorate Data, Centrelink, Financial Year 2005-06 |
