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How families claim
If their child is 15 years or younger, parents or guardians should claim ABSTUDY by calling the ABSTUDY line If their child is 16 or older, the student can call the ABSTUDY line to claim themselves.
Parents or guardians should call to claim either:
- before their child travels to an orientation or open day visit at your school or hostel
- as early as October in the year before their child starts high school.
When they call, we’ll ask for information to help work out what ABSTUDY support is available.
If we ask parents for supporting documents, they need to provide them within 14 days. They can upload the documents online, fax them or take them to a service centre.
You may need to help provide some of these documents or information.
What you need to do
You should start talking to families about ABSTUDY as soon as they contact you. Encourage them to claim early so we can let them know what type of ABSTUDY support they can get. The resources in our ABSTUDY eKits can help you with this discussion.
You’ll then play an important role in managing ABSTUDY secondary student payments.
Provide information
We may need information from you to support a student’s ABSTUDY claim. You can provide this by emailing ngb.notifications@servicesaustralia.gov.au.
Get permission to ask us about their ABSTUDY
You can encourage families to give you permission to enquire about their ABSTUDY. They can do this by completing the Authorising a person or organisation to enquire or act on your behalf form (SS313).They can also do it over the phone when they call.
Having permission to enquire will let you ask us about the student’s ABSTUDY payments and eligibility.
Help students get a Tax File Number
When a student starts at your school, it’s a good idea to get them to fill in a form applying for a Tax File Number (TFN). All ABSTUDY students will need their own TFN by the time they’re 16.
Arrange travel
Find out more about your role in arranging travel with ABSTUDY Fares Allowance.