Use the Student Regional Area Search service to check if your family home qualifies as one of the following:
- inner regional
- outer regional
- remote
- very remote.
You may be independent if you meet all the following criteria:
- your parental home is in an inner regional, outer regional, remote or very remote area
- you need to move away from your parental home to study
- you’ve worked since leaving secondary school
- your parents or guardians meet the parental income test for rural and remote areas.
Since leaving secondary school, you need to have either:
- earned 75% or more of the National Training Wage Schedule rate in any 14 month period
- worked at least 15 hours a week for at least 2 years.
You can’t include hours worked and income earned while still in secondary school.
You need to give us proof of your work.
Parental income test for rural and remote areas
Your parents or guardians can have a combined parental income of $160,000 per year. There’s also an extra $10,000 added to the parental income limit for each of your eligible siblings. If your parents’ or guardians’ income is over the limit you might not get Youth Allowance.
Your parents or guardians will need to complete the Parent(s)/Guardian(s) additional details for Youth Allowance, Special Benefit or ABSTUDY customers form.
For example, Luke lives with his mum and dad and his 2 school-aged sisters. His sisters are eligible siblings, so the combined parental income limit cut-off is $180,000.
Eligible siblings are any of your siblings under 22, unless they are one of the following:
- living away from home and are, or have been, a member of a couple
- living away from home and have, or have had, a dependent child
- getting Youth Allowance, ABSTUDY or Disability Support Pension as an independent person because it’s unreasonable for them to live at home
- in state care.
You can pick which financial year you use to calculate parental income. You can choose from 1 of 3 financial years, whichever is most beneficial for you. It can be any one of the below financial years.
Pre-Gap tax year
The Pre-Gap tax year is the financial year that ended before you started your employment. For example, if Luke started work on 15 February 2023, he would need to supply his parents’ or guardians’ income for the 2021-22 financial year.
Base tax year
This is your gap year, which is known as the Base tax year. The Base tax year is the financial year that ended before the calendar year that you’re eligible for payment. For example, if Luke is eligible for payment from 2 April 2024, he would need to supply his parents’ or guardians’ income for the 2022-23 financial year.
Post-Base tax year
The Post-Base tax year is the year following Base tax year. We can only use this tax year where your parents’ income has had a significant decrease that is likely to continue for at least 2 years. As this may be an estimate, we would require evidence of the decrease in income.
Census Date
The Census Date is used to determine your parents’ income limit, by including the extra $10,000 per eligible sibling on a particular date.
The Census Date is either:
- 30 June of the relevant tax year being used to assess the parental income, or
- the date of application for independence.
For example, if Luke is applying for independence using his parents’ income from 2023-24 financial year, we would automatically use 30 June 2024 as the Census Date. However, if Luke applies for independence on 8 August 2024 and he has more eligible siblings on this date than on 30 June, the Census Date used will be 8 August 2024. This allows the most beneficial amount for his parents’ income limit.