Adelaide Student Politics

From Lavinia Emmett-Grey

Dear Mark,

Your letter in relation to the recent student income support changes includes inaccuracies and distortions that need correction.

You suggest that raising the parental income threshold from $32 800 to $42 559 will only affect a further 5% of students. I like your use of statistics – in numbers terms it 67 800 students will be eligible as recipients. What’s more, 34,600 existing recipients will see their payments increased.

You state that: “With the new combined parental income test being set at $42 559, a rural family earning $45 000 is left with only $30 000 if they send ONE child to university”. This comment demonstrates your complete lack of understanding when it comes to student income support. Income support payments are not cut off at this amount, they are simply reduced by 25c for every dollar earned over that amount – these are known as taper rates. The Liberal government never took any steps to adjust income support taper rates, but the Rudd government has recently released adjusted taper rates which will come into effect on 1 January 2010.

This means that income support will cut off completely for a dependent student if their parents earn $74,419 (compared with $58,288 under Howard), and for students living away from home but considered dependent, it gets cut off at $90,974 (compared with $71,532).

What’s even more important is that even if you’re eligibly for only a partial income support payment, you are automatically eligible for the relocation scholarship (worth $4000), which will benefit 30 000 students compared to the current restrictive requirements which means it currently only reaches 16’428 students, and the Start Up Scholarship (worth $2254) which will benefit 173,300 students.

You incorrectly state that: “The relaxing of the personal income test will only take effect in 2011. Until then students can only earn $118 per week until their income support is docked.” In fact, at the moment, students can earn $236 before their payments become affected (and that means their payments are reduced by 50c for each dollar that they earn OVER the $236). The fact is, the ALP brought in the income bank concept and then the Liberals failed to index it AT ANY TIME during Howard’s 11 year reign. So yeah, it would be nice if it was adjusted to $400 tomorrow. But in 2011, 61 480 students will benefit from this extended criteria, something the Liberals failed to do for a decade.

In a numbers game, more students will be eligible for various forms of student income support under the recent changes. The real difference is that the money is being directed to students from low socio economic backgrounds, rather than being exploited as middle class welfare.

I am not content with the changes being made to student income support. I think it is a national shame that the overall Youth Allowance payment for a student living away from home in a share house is only 52.5% of the Henderson Poverty Line, while the single unemployment pension is greater than that. We should be incentivising study, not punishing those who enter higher education. However, these changes are long overdue and 11 years of a Liberal government never saw any positive movement for students, or the higher education system at large. Education is the great equaliser, but only if everyone has access to fair and accessible student income support.

Regards,
Lavinia Emmett-Grey
President
Adelaide University Union