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What counts as a scholarship
Scholarships are given to people for achievements or to help them with the costs of study. They are usually in the form of money.
If you get a scholarship you need to let us know. It may affect your payment from us. A payment from us may be a student payment, such as Youth Allowance or ABSTUDY. However, there are cases where your scholarship could affect other types of Centrelink payments.
Other names for scholarships are bursaries, stipends and grants. If you get one to help you study, we usually call them equity or merit-based scholarships.
An equity or merit-based scholarship is a scholarship you get:
- so you can study or do research
- for achievement in study or research.
This includes most education scholarships such as:
- Arts Council grants
- Tertiary Access Payment.
How scholarships affect your payment
The amount of the scholarship you get may affect your payment rate. We include equity or merit-based scholarships in your income test. Part of the equity or merit-based scholarship amount you get is exempt. We don’t count the first $9,724 per year in your income test.
For example, we treat the Tertiary Access Payment as an equity or merit based scholarship. Because the Tertiary Access Payment is under $9,724, the amount will be exempt for that calendar year.
Any amount over $9,724 per year counts as income and may impact your payment rate. If you get more than one scholarship, the $9,724 applies to the total amount you get, not to each one.
The exempt amount is indexed each year.
ABSTUDY payments for master and doctorate students
Master and doctorate students can’t get ABSTUDY payments if they get a scholarship under the Australian Government Research Training Program.
Family payments
If you’re getting Family Tax Benefit or Child Care Subsidy, we include all taxable scholarships as income in your income estimate. If your scholarships are non-taxable, you don’t need to include them in your income estimate.
If your child gets a scholarship and they’re aged under 16, the scholarship doesn’t impact on any payments.
If your child is aged 16 or older, a taxable scholarship will count as income for them.
If you’re claiming Paid Parental Leave, most scholarships don’t count as paid work for the work test.
When scholarships don’t affect your payment
Some scholarships are exempt from your income test. These include:
- scholarships that reduce or waive fees
- Commonwealth Scholarships
- Relocation Scholarship
- Student Start-up Loan.
How to inform us about your scholarship
If your Centrelink online account is linked to myGov you can tell us about a scholarship online.
If you don’t have a myGov account or a Centrelink online account you’ll need to create them.
You can also use the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.
If you don’t tell us about your scholarship within 14 days, we may overpay you. If that happens, you’ll need to pay money back.
Read more about the types of income we count to calculate payment rates.