What's the difference between Austudy & Abstudy, and who on this forum have children that have recieved Abstudy?

Hear Hear Kathryn.
I would personally advocate restricting Newstart payments to just 4 weeks. If you can't find a new job in that time, go on to Austudy; paid on an hourly basis or on modules completed.
The first step towards a just and happy society is not just getting people into work, but giving people the opportunity to find work they actually don't mind doing.
And giving people the choice not between sitting on their butts watching TV or working, but working at school or working at a real job for more money.
My own university aged daughter has upbraided me on a number of occasions for being a whitefella.

@Grim
Well that I wouldn't agree with that Grim, the job market is pretty tough at the moment, and some people can't find work in four weeks - particularly if they are highly qualified and the recruitment processes for their kinds of jobs take some time. And not everybody wants to reskill, my minor take out point there was that it's dumb that unemployed people get paid more to survive than students.

@bubblez
Austudy is only available to students over 25 and is less than Newstart at $402.70 per fortnight. (Students under 25 are on Youth Allowance). Plus you have to apply for things like health care cards, you don't get them automatically. If you are long term unemployed they match Newstart. As of July 1 I understand it is now available for people studying Masters degrees, it didn't used to be, but it is not available for people studying PhDs and I may be wrong but I think it is not available for people studying second degrees - those people can still apply for Newstart but they still have to comply with the employment participation of Newstart, they aren't left alone to study.

Abstudy is a base payment that ranges from being equal to Youth Allowance or Newstart up to $907.60 a fortnight for people studying Masters or Doctorates, plus scholarships, grants and other payments most of which are here - http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/centrelink/abstudy/abstudy-payments and there is a link from that page to the scholarships but the amounts of the scholarships are not listed. It varies greatly depending on circumstance obviously.

Do people who receive Abstudy have to pay HECS?

Perhaps we scrap Abstudy and replace it with Bigotstudy so 'these people' who don't know how to use Google can get educated!

Let's not forget Abstudy is means tested & was first introduced in 1968 by PM John Gorton's Coalition government.

Abstudy was originally aimed at improving indigenous students' employment prospects by providing financial assistance for their post-secondary education.

& this from the AHRC:
Generally, Indigenous peoples receive the same level of public benefits as non-Indigenous people. Individuals do not receive additional public benefits because they are Indigenous.

However, specific government programs, not additional income, have been introduced for Indigenous peoples because they are the most economically and socially disadvantaged group in Australia. Special programs are necessary to help overcome disadvantage.

These programs supplement those available to the mainstream population and provide a culturally appropriate alternative. They are necessary because Indigenous peoples do not generally use mainstream services at the same rate as non-Indigenous people and because the level of Indigenous disadvantage is much more severe. These programs aim to close the inequality gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Medical and legal services for low income and migrant communities are also available in Australia and many non-Indigenous people utilise Aboriginal Medical Services.
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/racial_discrimination/face_facts/chap1.html#1_5

Hi Jay,

Of course Indigenous students have to pay HECS or whatever it may be called today.

I've been out of direct involvement for some time, but I always thought that payments under both ABSTUDY and AUSTUDY were more or less the same - I remember one student who was cut off ABSTUDY because she was only twenty and had not worked for two years between school and uni, something like that.

How long are you staying on our planet, Diver Dan ? I don't think the vast majority of Indigenous students have any trouble at all with their identity as both university students AND as Indigenous people, these days. Along with their various other identities, of course.

Since 1990, around ninety thousand Indigenous people have commenced university study. Taking into account post-grads (about ten thousand), second-degree and transfers and repeats, it is likely that about at least sixty thousand Indigenous people have commenced award-level study since 1990.

To put this in perspective, about 140,000 Indigenous people have reached the current median age for Indigenous university students, about 25-26. Two-thirds of those students have been women, so if you do the maths, forty out of seventy thousand women, and twenty out of seventy thousand men, hae commenced university study for the first time.

2011 statistical data have been published early this year, and show record numbers of commencements (5400), continuations (6400), enrolments (11,800) and graduations (1742) for 2011, a steady rise of about 8 % p.a. in degree-level and post-grad enrolments. To put THOSE numbers into some kind of perspective, the number of Indigenous people in the median age group for Indigenous students is about 8,000.

Total graduate numbers could reach thirty thousand by the end of this year.

A recent news item spoke of Warwick secondary school in Queensland, where pretty much all of the Indigenous kids were scoring more highly than the school or grade average. Young people are seizing university opportunities more than ever, and there is little that the pseudo-Left can do to stop that, thank Christ.

Congratulations on a very useful article, Cathy.

Joe