EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1985 NO. 35
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Education
STUDENT ASSISTANCE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
The present Statutory Rules amend the Student Assistance Regulations (the Regulations), which are made under section 36 of the Student Assistance Act 1973 (the Act). The Act provides the legislative authority for the Tertiary Education Assistance Scheme (TEAS) and for Postgraduate Awards.
TEAS provides assistance on a non-competitive basis for students undertaking approved full-time post-secondary courses. Assistance under TEAS is granted in respect of a calendar year, or part of a year, so that a fresh application needs to be made each year. Applications for TEAS are required to be lodged within specified time limits and, where a late application is lodged, living allowance is generally payable only from the day on which the application is received.
The present amendments repeal the existing provisions dealing with the time limits for lodging applications under TEAS and substitute new provisions in their stead. The existing regulations are complex and this has caused Departmental officers problems in administering them; they also contain some very minor anomalies. Several minor drafting changes
have also been made.
The following changes are made:
(i) It is clarified that a student’s entitlement to benefits because of circumstances occurring before the relevant year is not affected if there is a delay in explaining the circumstances to a Departmental officer, provided the application is lodged in time.
(ii) A student may become entitled to benefits because of a change in circumstances. In some cases, the expiration of a qualifying period may constitute the change in circumstances and the student will qualify retrospectively from the beginning of the qualifying period. To assist students in this situation, the provisions are modified so that the student is required to notify the Department within 28 days from the change in circumstances, rather than within 28 days from the beginning of the period for which assistance becomes payable, as was formerly required.
(iii) The requirement to notify a change in circumstances which renders a student entitled to benefits now applies in all such cases, not only where the student has been notified that the initial application was unsuccessful.
(iv) The provisions regarding students undertaking short courses are brought into line with the provisions for other students. Formerly they differed in some minor respects.
Notes on individual regulations
Regulation 1 amends the existing sub-regulation 29(1), which defines expressions used in Part III of the Regulations, by inserting the following:
• A definition of “applicable lodgment date”. This definition summarises the existing time limits for lodging TEAS applications: 31 March for applications in respect of the first semester or the full year; 31 July for applications in respect of the second semester; 28 days after the course commences in the year for applications in respect of short courses.
• A definition of “short course”, which is defined as an approved course which does not extend beyond 30 weeks in duration.
Regulation 1 also amends the definition of “commencing date”, to include the new definition of “short course”.
Regulation 2 repeals sub-regulation 37(2) and substitutes a new sub-regulation 37(2), which includes the new definition of
“short course”. Sub-regulation 37(2) provides for the termination of assistance under TEAS from the expiration of the day on which the student ceases to undertake, or completes, a short course.
Regulation 3 repeals existing regulation 39 and substitutes a new regulation 39 to effect minor drafting changes consistent with the new regulations 45 and 45A. Regulation 39 provides that assistance under TEAS expires at the end of the calendar year, unless it was previously terminated.
Regulation 4 repeals existing regulations 45, 45A, 45B and 45BA, which deal with time limits for applications for assistance, and substitutes new regulations 45, 45A and 45B.
• New regulation 45 provides that living allowance is payable only from the day on which an application under TEAS is received if the application is late, ie is received after the closing date for lodgment of the application. (The new regulation 45 replaces existing sub-regulations 45(3), 45A(3) and 45B(3).)
• New regulation 45A applies to a student who does not initially qualify for benefits under TEAS but who subsequently becomes entitled to benefits because of a change in his or her circumstances. Living allowance is payable only from the day on which a Departmental officer is advised of the change in circumstances if the advice is
received more than 28 days after the change and after the applicable lodgment date; the advice is to be by lodging an application or a supplementary notification, whichever is appropriate. (The new regulation 45A replaces existing regulations 45, 45A and 45B, other than sub-regulations 45(3), 45A(3) and 45B(3).)
New regulation 45B provides that where, because of circumstances beyond the student’s control, there is a delay in a student furnishing a Departmental officer with an application or notification within the prescribed time limit no account will be taken of the delay. (The new regulation 45B replaces existing regulation 45BA.)