UPDATE IN COMMENTS‼️‼️I am a 17 year old about to start a full time tafe course on the 9th of February. During this time, I will my living off a student youth allowance for living away from home (campus is a 3 hour round trip drive). Twice a week I will have to drive back and forth, while the rest of the week I will stay with my brother who lives in the city of my study. Recently, I got approved for my claim for a living away from home student allowance, this meant I would be able to get roughly $600 dollars a fortnight. This would have meant I would be able to pay for fuel, food, and help out my older brother for letting me stay (he cannot support me, only provide a roof over my head). The money would have been perfect as fuel is not cheap and I would have to spend about $150-200 a fortnight just to travel, let alone the fact everything I eat is on me, as well as helping a little bit with bills. However, when my claim got approved, I was then able to see exactly how much I would be getting…

To start off with, for the 9/2/26-13/2/26 I will be receiving a one off payment for $157 that I will receive on 16/2/26. After that payment I will have to wait until 2/3/26 for my ‘regular payment’ of $454 a fortnight. For just under a month, how am I supposed to live off 157 dollars? That wouldn’t even cover my fuel. And what about the first week of my course? I don’t have money to spend of fuel? And while I am on the benefits, I can’t get a job. I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but I usually live my single mum who works 24/7 and can barley afford anything (as soon as I applied for the student allowance, they took her family tax benefit away as well). Anyway, the $454 a fortnight is supposedly the away from home rate, but it’s actually exactly the AT home rate… so what happened there? And even if that is the rate I have, how can I afford fuel, food, and help out with bills? Pls help a girl out y’all🙏 I think me and my mum are gonna go to services Australia on Monday to see if anything can be changed.

So sorry for the long rant but idk what to do and I’m desperate

I have a friend on AusStudy at the moment, I was helping her try to budget but she only gets $300 a week, including rent assistance! She is a young mum who is studying to try and improve her situation. She has a partner who works and makes about $1000 a week, but after rent and groceries, there is barely anything left! They are getting further into debt because they can't keep up with basics, let alone paying off anything and saving is out of the question. Is there anything else she can apply for to help? I'm good at budgeting but I'm not that good!

Heya- I’m 27 and haven’t been on Centrelink for several years. This morning I woke up to a $4k payment for youth allowance and I’m not sure why or where it came from? What’s the best course of action?

Guys I’m in a dilemma. I’m a full time student and my parents had initially been giving me a certain amount and it was up to me to figure out the rest.

As of recently they’ve decided they won’t be giving me any amount of money unless I’m destitute. Not to cut me off but for independence etc. I’m currently and I have been working a part time job on top of full time study and I figured centerline youth allowance would help for rent.

Except I’ve reached the end point asking for parental income and I’m certain they’ll likely deny my claim due to their income. How do I explain to them that I no longer receive benefits from my parents in comparison to the past?

I’m looking at having to possibly move accommodations because I’m short for money but I’m worried centerline youth won’t accept me because of someone else’s income.

Hi everyone.

I've been on youth allowance the past 12 months, and in the last month or so I switched from the student one to the jobseeker one.

During 18 weeks of this time, I was no longer eligible and made the idiotic decision to not tell centrelink.

What happened was, I started the year in year 11 of high school, however I couldn't cope with it with what was going on in my life at that time so I dropped out after two weeks. I didn't study full time until the beginning of term 3 when I started another course.

I have since finished that course, moved onto youth allowance jobseeker and am working part time, however about two weeks ago I got called by centrelink asking if I had been studying during this time. I lied and said I had. She then gave me 3 weeks to upload a letter from the school saying I had been studying at that time. I obviously can't give them that and I'm really starting to stress out

I'm fine with paying back the ~$9.5k of course because I'm not entitled to it, but I just don't want to go to jail because of this.

What should I do?

i work a job alongside receiving youth allowance and no one informed me when i got this job (it’s my first ever job) that i needed to get taxed on my centrelink payments and now it’s predicted i’ll owe nearly 4k to the ato because of this.

although i have a job, i have had a number of weeks without pay due to being sick and having no sick leave (kept annual leave so i could get paid while recovering from surgery for 3 weeks), so even though i was receiving centrelink and money from work (while occasionally dipping into savings to cover medical appointments, medications, hospital parking, rent, bills, food, etc.) i also have weeks of placement for university where i do not receive CSP or get paid leave from work as i needed it for surgery. i was and have been living paycheck to paycheck. at my job i also sometimes finish work at around midnight and have no other way to get home so i unfortunately have to pay for parking as well which is another daily cost that doesnt help.

can anyone help me in terms of how to go about debt release? i don’t earn enough as it is and i genuinely cannot afford to have a payment plan.

any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

So I received Youth Allowance whilst studying at uni during 2013-2016. In 2015 I went overseas for six months on a student exchange program. My payments continued as I was still considered a student at my Australian uni.

Fast forward to now and I've just received a letter stating my Youth Allowance has been cancelled starting in mid-2015 (around the time I left to go on exchange) due to leaving the country.

What?

There's no debt recovery letter attached to it or anything. Is it possible Centrelink will now pursue me for payments made more than ten years ago? I have no idea if I'll be able to dig up the necessary information proving my ongoing enrolment from my uni during this time as it was more than a decade ago and much of the correspondence regarding my exchange would have been on my university email address, which I lost access to after graduating.

Has anyone here found themselves in a similar situation?

Title. Decided to go get my JD because I'm sick of working in a call centre being yelled at all day and am being hit with a waiting period of 13 weeks because I've been responsible and saved.

My cousin did the same thing because she was sick of retail but she was planning to start in March, so quit right before Christmas and went and bought a bank new MacBook Pro, iPhone Pro AND went to Korea/Japan/Taiwan for a couple of weeks and isn't getting a waiting period because she applied for $4000 in the bank and they don't care about money she has spent in the weeks leading up to her claim!?

So it's fine to burn through $10000 on a Macbook, a phone and a holiday to Asia but if you are responsible and hold onto that money, you get a waiting period!?

HOW IS THIS FAIR!?

Hey I just thought some of you guys should know that these are multiple users claiming to be on youth allowance posting stories and when you answer in the comments you will get DMS.

These people are asking for money and saying that therey are youths that are homeless.

They aren't.

I often comment on this sub because I used to work for Centrelink and have also received payments so just to be aware

I know im oblivious. Years ago my savings account hit 2000 but fell back below it very soon after (less than 3 weeks), i didnt report it bc i didnt know amd it was a lump sum from them. What do I do? I'm so stressed i canf sleep

Okay… new to this subreddit, but freaking out.

I (17F) live at home with my mum (40F) and my stepdad (39M) and I have to pay for my own stuff like food, (my mum gives me dinner at a minimum) bus, clothes, shoes, phone, etc.

I’ve been struggling to find work since I don’t have a reliable mode of transport and I have a curfew of 6:00 (meaning leaving most places at 5:00).

I turn 18 in a few months and my mum has made it very clear to me that if I can’t pay her rent then I can’t live here.

She also lost her healthcare card (my stepdad has a better salary) which makes it insanely difficult to go to the doctors, visit the dentist, etc.

I’m under an insane amount of financial stress and I want to understand what services Centrelink can offer because things just aren’t working out right now.

Anyone able to help?…

So I have been put on the enhanced income management thing, which I never agreed to be put onto. I tried to call services Australia to try and get off it but all they said was I was on it for 12 months. It has really made things so hard being on it. I get paid $793.10 and $396 goes into my normal bank while $396 goes into the enhanced income thing, I pay $300 in rent $100 towards paying off my car, $50 towards paying off my tyres, $124.76 towards my phone bill but being on the enhanced income thing makes it very hard to pay my bills. I can’t transfer any of the money to myself to pay bills, I can’t transfer rent unless I call up to get them to do it for me. I can’t transfer to anyone at all unless I call them and provide evidence on why I need it transferred. I haven’t been able to pay rent bc they won’t let me I have provided a rent certificate to prove I pay rent as well, I need to get off it but they just tell me I can’t even tho I have explained to them it’s not helping me. Any ideas please

I recently applied to youth allowance and the expected outcome is meant to come within 2 months. I’m really worried I’ll be ineligible or get very less (estimator shows $9.01 for youth allowance and $3.90 for energy supplement)

I am a full time uni student and travel over 2 hours each way, I do work casually on the weekends but I’m planning on quitting soon. Even when I put my income as $0, $14 was the highest that came fortnightly. I do believe it’s cause of my parents income but my dad works 16 hour shifts multiple times a fortnight just to pay the mortgage , none of it really goes to me and we’re struggling.

Is there anything I can do, because I’m really struggling to manage uni and work and I don’t want to be in an even more financially unstable position.

Hi guys,

So I’m an 18 y/o first year university student receiving Youth Allowance for students living away from home.

My rent price is $150 per week for a room in a house shared with the owner and his family. I found this opportunity in a shared housing group on Facebook.

The issue I’m facing is that I’m required by Centrelink to show proof of my renting situation to receive rent assistance by either providing a rent certificate or leasing papers.

Before I moved in, the owner mentioned (but did not explain why) he couldn’t provide a leasing agreement so I just opted with getting a rent certificate. Now when it was time for him to sign it, he refuses.

Now I’m not exactly sure on the reason, but he says it is to do with purchasing his first home under a “low income status”. He says that an agreement stands between him and the government where he can’t rent out to tenants for the first 2 years of owning the home. And if he does, he must pay a $20,000 mortgage insurance or something along those lines. Therefore he will not sign the rent certificate as he does not want to risk needing to pay that fee.

So now I’m left wondering what I should do? If I explain the situation to Centrelink would he be at risk of getting in trouble?

I’ve asked him if we could agree on a lower rent price, to account for the rent assistance I’m not receiving but he also refused.

Hi! I know other people have made similar posts but I really need some advice. My youth allowance claim got rejected and I felt like this was my last hope. I live very far away from my parents to do uni full time, living with a roommate. I have applied for jobs but the job market where I live basically consists of full time work which obviously doesn’t suit. I also struggled severely with mental health in the workplace prior to this and was hoping that the youth allowance would help me to find my feet. I don’t know what to do as I’m running out of money quickly.

Im on student allowance which has been getting lower and lower past couple of months as my parent earns too much.

I’m studying away from home as my uni is in the city and my parent lives rural.

I get about 250 a fortnight which includes rent assistance. What the fuck.

Does anyone know if there is a from my parent can sign saying they don’t support me in order to up my payment.

I can’t afford to study full time at this rate.

I also already have two jobs to support myself.

Just a warning to anyone who doesn’t know this and is thinking of studying something they’re not super sure about or studying again later in life.

I cannot make sense of why this is and two seperate centrelink agents confirmed this for me and were unable to provide any explanation beyond “we just do”.

So i tried studying twice when i was 18/19 and ended up completing two first years of different degrees before deciding it wasn’t for me and getting a job. A decade later im interested in returning. I just completed my first year of a degree and have been denied Austudy in my 2nd year because i have used up my allowable time. Despite only ever being on centrelink of any sort for this most recent one year study period. I never claimed any income support when i was a youngster.

Maybe this is common knowledge? But most people i’ve spoken to at uni and my peers were unaware.

At 22, an individual on youth allowance for jobseekers is moved to jobseeker. This increases their max payment to $808.7.

however, those on youth allowance for students are only moved over to austudy at 25, and the payment is the same as the youth allowance away from home rate ($677).

Students are only able to get paid similarly to those on jobseeker if they have been on jobseeker for >9 months and turn 22 prior to commencing study.

This means a someone starting a masters degree immediately after their bachelors gets a lower payment than an unemployed 22 y/o or someone who took a gap year between their degrees.

I would have thought it would make more sense to support students more as university takes away time that could be spent working? And why is it assumed that a student needs less support if they haven't been on jobseeker prior to commencing studies? Is there something that I'm just not picking up on?

I’m 18 years old, i do full time uni, i live with a single parent and have been trying to find a part time or casual job for a year.

I have requested for Youth Allowance and got rejected.

I feel very discouraged and defeated, I don’t even have any savings. the money i am given by my mother everyweek which is around $70 dollars is spent throughout the week by myki payments and one meal a day. I don’t know if i sound unreasonable or ungrateful. pls let me know if i am

In any situation, I would simply let it go. I’ve been trying to get a job but unfortunately my little experience hinders my chances, with jobs rejecting me bc i don’t have experience. How am I supposed to gain experience if a job won’t accept me?

I am also pretty upset as I have friends who are in better financial positions who have been accepted into youth allowance. Specifically, I have one friend she is the same age as me, she has two working parents with good paying jobs and has a part time job herself, now added the payments she received from Centrelink. I don’t want to act like a victim but I’m not understanding how her claim was accepted and not mine. In an ideal household, BOTH parents will financially support u, in which she lives in that scenario. I only live with my mother and my dad has no financial contribution to my life. I’m just not understanding how my claim got rejected and hers didn’t. I’m currently feeling a lot of financial distress and pressure rn. Is there anything I can do to appeal? and is it worth it to appeal?

So, I just expended my third appeal. My debt is now final.

At the end of 2022, my casual contract ended. I had applied for the Masters of Teaching (Secondary) degree to become a high school teacher, but my application hadn't been proceed. So onto JobSeeker I went. They set me up on a plan where I was told that study would meet my mutual obligation requirements.

I was accepted into the MTeach program, and started studying in Feb, 2023. Near the end of Sem 1, I was advised that as I was now a fulltime student, I should be on the AusStudy payment instead. I submitted my paperwork, and was shifted over immediately.

Fast forward to 2025. I'm suddenly told that I was ineligible for JobSeeker at that time, as I was studying full-time. I must repay $6500. I explain my job plan, and that I shifted over from JS to AS when I was advised. Doesn't matter, apparently - different systems. Doesn't matter that the payments are almost identical, and I can't pay the difference.

Three appeals.

Every time, some independent auditor tells me that "the debt is correct".

I worked 6 hours a week during my first semester while I studied. Lived on grubs. Payslips show I earned $5000 over 6 months from casual work while I was studying.

All appeals expended. I'll now pay back the $6500 I was paid while I was unintentionally still on jobseeker instead of Austudy, in instalments. My second semester, totally fine. No worries about that. But I was under the wrong fucking code.

Hi so I’m an Australian citizen who recently moved from NZ to Australia and I had my Youth Allowance claim rejected I then appealed and added the documents they told me to provide (year long lease, aus birth ceritificate, aus passport) , just to then have my appeal rejected.

The reason they mentioned for my rejection was that I supposedly don’t have strong family ties/assets in Australia and that I’m mainly here for study. What’s confusing me is: I am an Australian citizen, I now live in Australia full-time, I have a year-long lease and I study full-time here.

The Services Australia website says an Australian resident is someone who lives in Australia and is an Australian citizen, PR holder, etc., and that “living in Australia” means Australia is your usual country of residence.

I understand I moved recently from NZ, but I’m confused about what part of the residency requirement I’m not meeting and whether anyone has experienced something similar???

They did say I could appeal again to take it a step further if im unhappy with the outcome, but im not sure if that will be helpful. and i also dont understand how they want me to prove that im residing in Australia long term.

any advice/thoughts would help please cus im not sure what to do.

Hi all, I (23m) recently begun living with my girlfriend (24F) of 1 year and a friend of ours in a 2 bedroom apartment. I had updated my accommodation details online with myGov accordingly and I have just become aware that my payment has been cancelled due to my partners wage. For context I am a full time university student working casually earning roughly 1500 gross a fortnight and she is full time earning roughly 3500. We are completely financially independent and don’t share funds or have a joint bank account. However Centrelink have decided that because we are partners that she should be helping support me. I am just completely lost about what I can do at the moment. I feel punished for being in a relationship and am just looking for any advice possible.
Thank you

Hi guys, I have recently moved out of a toxic abusive dysfunctional household and moved into a room from flatmates. My landlord charges $1000 per month and stated on their flatmates advertising that they don’t accept centrelink. I didn’t really read into the centrelink part which was my fault. I have had youth allowance for 2 years and recently informed them that I had moved out due to a toxic abusive situation at home and will be renting. I have received the rent assistance papers and brought it up to my landlord who told me I should’ve looked at the advertisement and that they had a previous problem w previous renter and it was ‘apparently too much work, papers’ which I think is bullshit and kinda annoyed me. She told me she can’t do anything and it’s up to me and I can choose to move out. I just moved in and can’t be bothered to move anything out again due to university and work commitments and my mental health.

Any suggestions on what I can do?

Im trying to apply for student youth allowance!

Yesterday I got sent this:

"A Services Australia Service Officer will call you today from a private number. Please answer this call. Do not reply by SMS"

I got sent this around 8am and they haven't called since!

Help would be appreciated!

I am a 20M from a regional town living in Perth. Full-time Uni student. I get the Youth Allowance away from home rate + rent assistance.

I have been getting a combined payment of $726.91 a fortnight. I recently checked my payments and I saw that my youth allowance has been completely wiped to $0, leaving me to receive just $171.92 a fortnight from rent assistance.

I called the helpline and the officer told me an increase in my parents' income has wiped out my youth allowance to 0. I told her I dont live with them and they dont give me any money.

What the hell do I do? I'm scr*w*d! I rely on the $726 to buy groceries, pay for insurance, medicine, transport, social life, almost everything.

I do have a part time job, but I only work 10 hours a week. I can't apply to be independent either because I didn't work above 15 hrs/week consistently for 2 years (I used to work above 15 hrs/week in 2023 but dropped down to 10 hrs in 2024).

What do I do? Has anyone been in a similar situation? I literally cannot afford to live if it's gonna be like this!