The Relocation Scholarship is an annual payment for eligible Youth Allowance and ABSTUDY Living Allowance customers who have to live away from the family home to study. You'll receive this scholarship at the beginning of the academic year to help with the costs of living away from home. If you're eligible, you will now receive a larger amount of the Relocation Scholarship for your first year of study, with subsequent years being at a lower rate, even if you're not on the maximum payment rate from Centrelink.

Eligibility

To qualify for this payment, you must:

• be studying full-time in an approved scholarship course, and
• be in receipt of ABSTUDY Living Allowance or Youth Allowance as a full-time student, and
• receive at least $1 of Youth Allowance basic benefit or $1 of ABSTUDY Living Allowance in the fortnight that a scholarship is payable (i.e. you must be receiving more than just the Pharmaceutical Allowance and Rent Assistance component of Youth Allowance or ABSTUDY)*,
• be a dependent person who has to live away from home to study, or
• meet specific scholarship independence criteria

* You will not be able to receive a scholarship in the scheduled pay period if you do not qualify for at least $1 of Youth Allowance basic benefit or ABSTUDY Living Allowance within that pay period. If you are eligible, you will be able to receive the scholarship in the next pay period in which you receive at least $1 of basic benefit or ABSTUDY Living Allowance.

You won't be eligible for this scholarship if:

• you also receive, or qualify for, a Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarship or a Relocation Scholarship paid by the Department of Veterans' Affairs
• you do not start (or resume) full-time study within 35 days of qualifying for the scholarship
• you do not undertake full-time study for at least 35 days after qualifying for the scholarship
• there are less than 35 days left in the year
• you have received the ABSTUDY Residential Costs Option in the current study year
• you have reached the age of independence and have not previously received a Relocation Scholarship under one of the specific scholarship independence criteria, or have not previously received a Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarship

Note: the Relocation Scholarship is no longer payable to you once you turn 25 years of age, or if you stop undertaking the course you started before you turned 25 years of age, whichever is later.

Approved scholarship course

An approved scholarship course is an accredited higher education course or preparatory course that is undertaken at a higher education institution.

Scholarship independence criteria

The specific independence criteria that qualify for a Relocation Scholarship are:

• unable to Live at Home
• orphan
• parents cannot exercise responsibility
• refugee (Youth Allowance only)
• in state care (Youth Allowance only)
• specially disadvantaged (safety net criteria)
• have (or have had) a dependent child
• currently have care or custody of another person's child (ABSTUDY only)
• tribal initiation (ABSTUDY only)
• have been in lawful custody for a cumulative period of six months or more (ABSTUDY only)
• have returned to live in an Indigenous community after having been adopted or fostered by a non-Indigenous family for more than two years (ABSTUDY only)

Payment Rates

From 1 January 2012 the amount of Relocation Scholarship a student can receive each year will depend on:

• whether their family home is in an area classified as Inner Regional Australia, Outer Regional Australia, Remote Australia or Very Remote Australia, and
• what year of study they are undertaking

In 2012, the Relocation Scholarship for students whose family home is in an area classified as Inner Regional Australia, Outer Regional Australia, Remote Australia or Very Remote Australia will be:

• $4,000 if it is the first year required to live away from home to undertake full-time study in an approved scholarship course
• $2,000 if it is the second or third year
• $1,000 if it is the fourth year or subsequent year

In 2012, the Relocation Scholarship for students whose family home is in an area that is not classified as Inner Regional Australia, Outer Regional Australia, Remote Australia or Very Remote Australia will be:

• $4,000 if it is the first year required to live away from home to undertake full-time study in an approved scholarship course
• $1,000 in any subsequent years

Each of these amounts will be indexed by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from 1 January each year, starting from 1 January 2013.

Students can find out which area their family home is in by using the Student Regional Area Search service.

Claiming

You do not need to make a separate claim to receive these scholarships. When you claim a Centrelink payment, your eligibility for the Relocation Scholarship is assessed at the same time.

More Information

For more information, visit Relocation Scholarship section of Centrelink's website