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Samantha WIse
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Monday 08 December 2008 9:30:01 am
I think there needs to be changes made in the way in which people can qualify for independence from their parents.
The idea that you need to earn a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time after finishing school is ridiculous...
Many students who can't get youth allowance due to their parents earnings are NOT ACTUALLY FINANCIALLY SUPPORTED BY THEIR PARENTS! Some because the parents choose not to, some because they trully cannot afford to.
For a student living away from home and studying full time they would be entitled to say $360 per fortnight yes? In a year thats almost $10 000!
For many parents whose income is deemed too high by centrelink's standards this figure is too high to match.
The point is that there are so many students out there who are living away from home and studying who aren't being supported by centrelink because of their parental earnings, but are not getting money from their parents either!
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K Gursh
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Monday 25 January 2010 4:35:01 pm
I have found it very hard to obtain a Youth Allowance payment, or some sort of financial support as a student.
At 20 years of age, I want to study full time at university. I have had to move into the city from my home for better work and study opportunities. I hold a part time job (that doesn't cover my weekly rent and bills) and I am looking for more work.
I received YA as a dependant child - living 5 hours away from my parents?!?! My parents earnings affected my payments, and I received $70 a fortnight to survive. My parents have two other children to support, and have not supported me financially in the past 2 years.
To survive on my $70 a fortnight,I supplemented the shortfall with my savings I made from a traineeship I gained after completing Year 12. (which was 40hrs/wk at $7.70/hr) After 12 months of full time work I was still not eligible for independant youth allowance.
I was only living off of this tax payer money for 8 weeks. I found employment in order to keep up with the city living expenses, I had two part time jobs, and studied full-time completing a Cert IV at tafe. Working while studying was difficult for me, so while I am studying at Uni next year I hope to have a little bit of financial support from the government so I can focus on studying more than working.
I am grateful to live in a country where the government can support us in such a way - but then I find it a little unfair when I feel like I have worked the hours and continued to study since leaving high school, and I see friends around me who haven't worked, nor studied as much and are receiving YA payments because they were able to get a higher hourly wage, or had parents who owned a business and were able to forge a few payslips for their children.
I would like to see the government support its rural students and families more, by either inscreasing the parental assets/income threshold to include more students or lowering the ammount of hours to be worked, or the amount to have earned to allow more students to be classified as independent.
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Sam Miller
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Monday 15 February 2010 10:40:02 am
Well.. Ross Gittins says we're all just complaining about nothing.
http://www.businessday.com.au/bus...students-cry-poor-20081202-6poh.html
He argues that too many uni students have it GREAT financially and if not should simply suck it up as it teaches them to have some concern for the genuinely needy. Within the article he goes on about our fantastic HECS debt (ironic because my guess is when he attended an Australian University in the 70's it was free) which is fine for most of us because we're privileged enough to go through University without that worry of payment unlike other countries.
After rattling off some figures he states "And we're supposed to feel sorry for kids who can't buy everything they want for a few years while they qualify to enter the winners' circle?". Which annoys me because he seems to refer to uni students as 'kids' constantly throughout this article and to anyone reading it not at university would maintain the image of a new school leaver living at home whinging about uni and their small hours at a part-time job. However, we all know this is NOT always the case as many uni students do not have the support of their parents!
He continues by stating “More than 60 per cent of full-time uni students of all ages have jobs. Forty per cent work up to 19 hours a week, 15 per cent work between 20 and 34 hours a week and 6 per cent work full-time.” I would love to know of these statistics that which live at home with their parents and who does not. He also fails to mention that in Australia a full-time job consists on average 38 hours. He also fails to mention the added hours in which you place into University study including that stated on the Griffith website as “12 to 16 hours each week in lectures and tutorials, hours between lectures and tutorials due to timetabling. Hours assigned to substantial amounts of reading and writing which may not be directly addressed in class. As well as the recommended study of at least 2 to 3 hours outside of class for each hour in class.” This is what MUST be done alongside the added many unpaid practicum hours if you want to succeed as a University student.
“Full-time students under 25 who live in group households have earnings averaging only about a third of the earnings of full-time workers under 25 living in group households – $270 a week versus $820 a week. But, on average, the students spend $540 a week each, which is only about 20 per cent less than the $690 a week the workers spend.” – An ignorant man and a statistic I’d like to find more out about as if this is true where do the university students find the money to support the outgoing debt – those parents again? Personally I live pay to pay and constantly find my bank balance in debt. Which is fine I figure bills out, as best as possible, as many uni students do, who don't live at home. However, there have been times when I have gone without eating, missed a day at uni because I don't have the bus fare to get there or MUST work to pay the weeks bills. Life IS expensive (anyone would tell you that) and for a student with rent, food, electricity, phone and net (even on the cheapest packages), bank fees, transport, semester stationary and textbooks as well as the credit card payment etc find it quite difficult.
I am 24 and have obtained a full-time job since graduating High School. The highest possible rate I’m entitled to via Centrelink (including rent assistance) is $440 a fortnight. Yes, that’s $220 a week and this is to include my rent, food and weekly bills as well transport costs at minimum. With such uni students choose to let go of some of their study in order to work however, we then lose 50c of every dollar from Centrelink when we start making over $118 extra a week. This then rises to 60c when reaching $158 a week until cut off. However, the hours we have available to work are fair too few and with the need to work comes a loss of higher grades which at the end of the day for any true university student is the worst price paid.
Students are not the worst off Aussies when you hear about carers of family members, the elderly and those on disability. However, when you hear the privileges the government gives to others and then you read an article like Ross Gittins – it’s a pretty big kick in the guts.
We want to have the greatest available medical, science and education accessible to Australians but sadly, not willing to invest in such.
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