Independent Youth Allowance

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Services Australia

• 

  Baysew on 14/12/2015 - 18:36

  You may be eligible for Youth Allowance if you are:

  16 to 21 years old and looking for full-time work or undertaking approved activities
  18 to 24 years old and studying full-time
  16 and 17 years old and have completed year 12 or equivalent, need to live away from home in order to study, or considered independent for Youth Allowance
  16 to 24 years old and undertaking a full-time Australian Apprenticeship

  (http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/centrelink…)

  All I know is that you must be over 22 years of age

  I'm guessing you are to old for Youth Allowance.

• 

  JR63 on 14/12/2015 - 18:42

  In addition to the above, the dependent or independent rules also apply:

  Dependent
  You are considered dependent for Youth Allowance if you do not meet the independence criteria. Being dependent means parents' or guardians' income and assets will be used to determine your eligibility.

  Independent
  If you are 22 or older you are automatically considered independent.

  If you are under 22, some of the ways you may be considered independent, include where you:
  *have supported yourself through full-time employment of an average of 30 hours per week for at least 18 months during any period of 2 years,
  *have or have had a dependent child, or
  *are unable to live at home due to extreme circumstances, or your parents can not exercise their responsibilities

  Students from areas classified as inner regional, outer regional, remote and very remote can be assessed as independent who, since leaving secondary school have:
  *earned at least 75 per cent of Wage Level A of the National Training Wage Schedule included in a modern award, in an 18-month period, or
  *worked part-time (at least 15 hours each week) for at least 2 years
  For a full list of all the ways that you may be considered independent for Youth Allowance see the Independence for Youth Allowance page.

  In simplified terms, if you're over 22 years of page, your parents' income won't matter as you're considered independent regardless.

  Are you still studying though? If not, look into Newstart (if you're 22 or over) - http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink…

• 

  DEvok on 14/12/2015 - 18:49

  Cheers already been through all of that, just don't know if this all can be completed online or at the branch.

  • 

    indium on 14/12/2015 - 19:14

    You complete the application online, you may have to go down to a branch to provide further information such as ID verification but I was told when I went down there that I could have done that online even though I'm 90% sure I was not able to, I think it depends if you have a centrelink account already or not which I didn't.

  • 

    JR63 on 14/12/2015 - 19:17

    +2

    I had to go in to provide identification because I didn't have a Centrelink account, so my created account didn't have that level of access to do it online yet.

• 

  DEvok on 14/12/2015 - 22:23

  I previously had sickness allowance does that mean I would still need an account? It's been a couple of years ago.

  • 

    altomic on 14/12/2015 - 22:36

    You'd have a CRN customer reference number which would help a little but you'd still have to provide updated info with your application. For YA.

• 

  DEvok on 14/12/2015 - 22:54

  Must this be updated online or at their branch? Doesn't seem like much can be don't in my account. I don't know if letter of resignation and bank statements would help taking it to one of there locations, or they would know this since they are the government.

  • 

    JR63 on 15/12/2015 - 01:08

    They'll generally recommend you do the form online ("make a claim" on your Centrelink account) and at the end it will ask you for supporting documentation. You can submit any supporting documentation online except for identification.

    You can electronically upload some of these supporting documents using our Document Lodgement Service. However, you won’t be able to submit your identity documents this way.

    http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/centrelink…

    According to this, you'll probably have to go in to submit your identification:

    For most of our payments, you must confirm your identity when claiming.

    http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/proof-of-i…

    Regarding bank statements, I had to submit copies of them.

• 

  jagboy on 15/12/2015 - 07:24

  +3

  So, you are in debt and resign from your job then expect the Government (taxpayers) like me to support you? Poor judgement on your behalf. Get a life and a job and pay your own debts.

• 

  voiletmay on 15/12/2015 - 08:01

  You will have to have a mygov account with centrelink on it (tax and medicare will be added too). You need to go in to Centrelink to do this. There will be computers at the front and a staff member helping people on the computers. This staff member will help you set up. You will need 3 forms of ID (atm card, drivers license and birth certificate are their favourites) to get all this done, so make sure you take that with you when you go to Centrelink.

  Once it is working you can then apply for youth allowance online. They will tell you (they told my daughter when we were there last week) that to apply for youth allowance even if you think you will be rejected. So I would go and apply even if you are not sure if you will be eligible.

  If you are not eligible for independent youth allowance you will still probably be eligible for a "Low Income Health Care Card". That you can also apply for online.

  The staff members at my local centrelink are always extremely helpful and nice. I have a disabled child who turned 16 this year, so it's been 8 months solid of centrelink forms/misery/waiting/stress/numerous doctors visit to sort out him turning 16. The staff have been all lovely despite the process being so arduous.

  • 

    indium on 15/12/2015 - 08:44

    You can still create a centrelink account online and link it to mygov online

  • 

    moar bargains on 15/12/2015 - 14:04

    Centrelink strategy 101: make it as difficult as possible, so only the really committed ones keep going!

• 

  OldSchoolHarry on 15/12/2015 - 10:42

  I receive Youth allowance as a full time student. I'm over 22 but still considered dependant. Centrelink people said that only job-seekers have 22 year rule.

• 

  DEvok on 16/12/2015 - 21:18

  The Income and assets form which has 15 pages asks if you have a partner, which i don't. because of that i had to skip everything all the way to the very bottom, it had questions all asking about bank and assets, correct me if I'm wrong?