Income and assets tests

Income and assets may affect your payment if you get Living Allowance or School Fees Allowance higher rate.

It may also affect any Rent Assistance, Remote Area Allowance or Pharmaceutical Allowance you might get.

Income and assets don't affect any other ABSTUDY payments or allowances.

Which income and assets tests we’ll use to work out your payment rate depends on your situation.

When you’re dependent

If you’re dependent, we’ll work out how much ABSTUDY you can get using either the:

• personal income test
• parental means test.

We won’t use the personal income test if you’re a dependent student under 16.

When you’re independent

If you’re independent, we’ll use 2 tests to work out how much ABSTUDY you can get. These are the:

• personal income test
• personal assets test.

If you have a partner, we’ll also use the partner income test.

We won’t use the personal income test if you’re an independent student under 16.