º£ÌÄÖ±²¥

Information

Traffic light system phase 1 is now live. Phase 2 comes out in 2025. Go here to find out more: Traffic light system

Skip to main content
Studylink | Hoto Akoranga
  • A-Z payments
  • Forms
  • Go to the Studylink home page
    Home
  • Starting study
  • º£ÌÄÖ±²¥
  • Returning to study
  • Finished studying
  • Home
  • MyStudyLink Login
  • Online Services
    • MyStudyLink
      • What you can do in MyStudyLink
      • Can’t log in to MyStudyLink
    • Apply online
      • First-time students
      • Returning students
      • Help with applying online
      • Information you'll need
      • Help with filling in the online form
      • Documents supporting your application
      • Verifying copies of original documents
      • How to send us your documents
      • Application status in MyStudyLink
      • When do payments start
    • Send documents using Connect
    • Eligibility test
      • What the test assesses you for
      • Eligibility test disclaimer and privacy information
    • Your RealMe login
      • Manage your RealMe account
      • Forgotten username or password
  • Emergency events
    • COVID-19
  • Starting study
    • How StudyLink works
    • How to pay for study
      • What and where to study
      • Your costs while studying
      • How to pay for study
      • Can you afford to study
      • Scholarships
      • Discount on public transport fares
    • Payments available
      • Student Loan
      • Student Allowance
      • Studying part-time
      • Extra help
      • Studying overseas
      • Help for partners
      • Moving from a benefit to study
      • Studying while on a benefit
      • Examples of what you can get
      • Eligibility test
    • Applying for a payment
    • A-Z of payments
    • A-Z of forms
  • º£ÌÄÖ±²¥
    • Change in circumstances
      • Age changes
      • Address and contact details
      • Bank account
      • Dependent children
      • Name change
      • Going overseas
      • Relationships
      • Tax code
      • Working while studying
    • Change to study details
      • Change study dates
      • Drop papers
      • Pick up papers
      • Change course or programme
      • Extend your study
      • Transfer to another education provider
      • Withdraw from study
    • Change to childcare details
      • Absent from childcare
      • Change in hours
      • Change in reason you get payment
      • Child moves providers
      • Child no longer in your care
      • Start or stop 20 hours ECE
      • Continuing pre-school childcare
      • Continuing childcare when your child's at school
      • Extending childcare
      • Moving to OSCAR
      • Add a child
      • Stop payments
      • Child stops childcare
      • Study, work or training
      • Teacher only day
    • Declare income
      • Student Allowance
      • Student Loan
      • Childcare
      • Extra help
      • Jobseeker Support Student Hardship or Emergency Benefit
      • Parents income
    • Claim course-related costs
    • Change Student Loan living costs
    • Break between study
    • Summer school
    • Unpaid practical work, research or field work
    • Not meeting course requirements
    • Cancel Student Loan
    • Urgent or unexpected costs
      • Food
      • Accommodation and moving costs
      • Power, gas and water bills or heating
      • Dental treatment
      • Glasses
      • Whiteware (eg, fridge, freezer, washing machine)
      • Car repairs
    • Debt
      • Repay debt while on Student Allowance
      • Repay debt if not on Student Allowance
    • Obligations
      • Student Allowance obligations
      • Student Loan obligations
      • Jobseeker Support Student Hardship obligations
      • Emergency Benefit obligations
  • Returning to study
    • Continuing from last semester
    • Took a study break
    • Passing requirements for Student Loan
    • Passing requirements for Student Allowance
    • How many loans you can get
    • How long you can get a Student Allowance for
    • Postgraduate study
    • Apply online for returning students
  • Finished studying
    • What happens to your loan
  • Payments and rates
    • A-Z of payments
      • Student Allowance
      • Student Loan
    • Rates
    • Calculators
  • Forms
  • Glossary
  • About StudyLink
    • Contact us
      • Phone numbers
      • Email us
      • Send evidence
      • Report a suspected fraud
      • Death of a student
    • News
    • Glossary
    • Our services
      • Appointments
      • Cheap as data
      • How StudyLink works
      • About us
      • Payment cards
    • Agents
    • Complaints
      • Review of Decision for Student Allowance
      • Review of Decision for benefit
      • Student Loan objection
  • About this site
    • Accessibility
    • Privacy, disclaimer and copyright information
    • Online security
    • Site map
  1. Home
  2. º£ÌÄÖ±²¥
  3. Declare income
  4. How income affects Student Allowance

º£ÌÄÖ±²¥

  • Change in circumstances
  • Change to study details
  • Change to childcare details
  • Declare income
    • Student Allowance
    • Student Loan
    • Childcare
    • Extra help
    • Jobseeker Support Student Hardship or Emergency Benefit
    • Parents income
  • Claim course-related costs
  • Change Student Loan living costs
  • Break between study
  • Summer school
  • Unpaid practical work, research or field work
  • Not meeting course requirements
  • Cancel Student Loan
  • Urgent or unexpected costs
  • Debt
  • Obligations

WARNING: Your device is running Android version 7 or below. From September, you may experience issues accessing our website. We recommend using the Firefox browser.

How income affects Student Allowance

If you or your partner get any income, you need to tell us straight away as it could affect how much Student Allowance you're entitled to.

What's counted as income?

If you don’t tell us about your income we may pay you too much and you’ll have a debt to pay back.

How income affects your payments

Important information

Your income can be up to $276.11 a week (before tax), before it affects your Student Allowance.

After this, your Student Allowance reduces cent for cent.

Example

Your Student Allowance weekly payment is $368.96 (after tax) or $421.77 (before tax). You worked last week and earned $350 (before tax).

We don't count $276.11 (before tax) as income, but the rest of your earnings, that is $73.89 (before tax), will be counted as income.

This means your Student Allowance payment will be reduced by $73.89 (before tax).

Use a Student Allowance calculator to work out how much you could get
Student Allowance rates

If you have a partner

When you're in a recognised relationship, how much you get for a Student Allowance is based on your income and your partner's income.

Below is a guideline for what you could get based on your income and your partner's income and other circumstances.

Combined weekly income before tax is: You might be able to get between:
$552.22 or less $323 - $677 a week after tax
Between $552.22 and $1,150.00 $191 - $257 a week after tax
$1,150.00 or more You can't get a Student Allowance

If you're getting a Student Allowance and your personal income is over $276.11 a week before tax, your weekly rate will then further reduce cent for cent.

Use a Student Allowance calculator to work out how much you could get

Example

You work part-time and earn $350 a week (before tax). Your partner gets $50 a week (before tax), so your total income is $400 a week (before tax).

This means you could get between $323-$677 a week for Student Allowance, due to your combined income.

As you earn $350 a week (before tax), we don't count $276.11 (before tax) as income, but the rest of your earnings, that is $73.89 (before tax), will be counted as income.

This means your Student Allowance payment will be further reduced by $73.89 (before tax).

If you get Accommodation Benefit

Your Accommodation Benefit payment will stay the same, even if your Student Allowance payment goes down. But if your Student Allowance payment stops, your Accommodation Benefit will stop as well.

If you get Student Loan living costs

Your living costs payment reduces by the amount of Student Allowance you get. So if your Student Allowance payment goes down, this amount may increase.

How to tell us

You need to let us know by the Sunday of the week you earn the money, not the week you've been paid.

We'll work out what your Student Allowance payment will be in the following week. It affects the following week's payment because we pay for the week that's just been.

You can update your income online, in MyStudyLink. The amount you declare will continue every week until you let us know it has stopped or changed.

If we ask you to provide evidence of your income, you can upload it using Connect



If your income covers more than one calendar week, you need to enter your income for each Monday-Sunday week. You can do this by working out how many hours you've done in each Monday-Sunday week and multiplying this by your hourly rate (before tax) for that week.

Example - working Wednesday to Wednesday

You get paid $24 an hour and worked 20 hours in a Wednesday-Wednesday week. You earned a total of $480.

  • You worked 15 hours in the first Monday-Sunday week (from Wednesday to Sunday). This means you earned $360 in the first week.
  • You worked 5 hours in the second Monday-Sunday week (from Monday to Wednesday). This means you earned $120 in the second week.

So you would enter $360 for the first Monday-Sunday week and $120 for the second Monday-Sunday week. 

Can't work out your hours

If you can't work out how many hours you've done in each week, you can calculate your income like this:

  1. Take the total amount you earned - $480.
  2. Divide $480 by the total number of days you worked (so if you worked every day from Wednesday to Wednesday, it would be 8 days). This gives you an average daily income of $60.
  3. Multiply your average daily income (e.g. $60) by the number of days you worked in each Monday to Sunday period, e.g:
    • $60 x 5 (5 days from Wednesday to Sunday) is $300 for the first Monday to Sunday week.
    • $60 x 3 (3 days from Monday to Wednesday) is $180 for the second Monday to Sunday week.

So you would enter $300 for the first Monday-Sunday week and $180 for the second Monday-Sunday week.

If your partner is:

  • getting a Student Allowance, they can update their income in their own MyStudyLink account
  • not getting a Student Allowance, they can email us or call us to tell us about their income.

Holiday pay is counted as income for the week that you get it. 

If it's paid:

  • as part of your weekly income (including when you're on annual leave), you need to include the amount of holiday pay in the total amount of income you get each week
  • as a lump sum after you leave your job, you need to tell us the total amount you get for the week that you get it.

Related

Working while studying
How to pay for study
Debt
Back to top

Copyright © 2025 º£ÌÄÖ±²¥

  • Starting study
  • º£ÌÄÖ±²¥
  • Returning to study
  • Finished studying

Online services

  • Eligibility test
  • Declare income

About

  • About StudyLink
  • About this site
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy, disclaimer and copyright

Contact us

  • How to contact us