Parental means test

Parental income and boarding costs

In 2025, we look at your income for the 2023-2024 financial year.

How your income for tax year 2023-24 affects your payment

Boarding costs affect the amount of Additional Boarding Allowance you get. Boarding costs include boarding charges, plus $250 to cover items like laundry and toiletries. Boarding charges are the net boarding fees actually charged by the institution. It doesn’t include fees for tuition or items relating to it.

In 2025, if the boarding charges for that year are $10,088 or less, you can only get Basic Boarding Allowance.

If the boarding charges for the year are more than $10,088 in 2025, you can get Additional Boarding Allowance. The amount you can get will be the lower amount of either:

• the maximum annual rate less any reduction from the parental income test
• the level of annual boarding costs for the student that’s more than the Basic Boarding Allowance amount.

Types of income tested

The test uses the combined taxable and other income for the tax year prior to the child’s study year. We call this the base tax year.

If your child is studying in 2025, we use the combined parental income for the 2022-23 tax year.

Parental income includes:

• combined parental taxable income
• tax free pensions and benefits
• fringe benefits
• income from outside Australia
• reportable superannuation contributions
• total net investment losses such as negative gearing losses for that tax year.

We deduct child support or maintenance you pay for a former partner from the parental income.

Call the Assistance for Isolated Children line to give us your income details and claim Additional Boarding Allowance.

Family pool

The family pool refers to the dependent children in your family who may affect the amount of Additional Boarding Allowance you get.

Your family pool includes dependent children who:

• get Youth Allowance, ABSTUDY Living Allowance or income tested School Fees Allowance Group 2
• get Assistance for Isolated Children Additional Boarding Allowance
• are aged between 16 to 19, attend secondary school
• are aged under 16.

If there’s a shared care arrangement in place for a child in your family, we may take this into account.

If you need to update your family details, call the Assistance for Isolated Children line.

Changes to parental income in the study year

If you get Additional Boarding Allowance, you must tell us if there are any changes to parental income. Sometimes, changes to parental income can mean your payment rate changes. Your payment may also change if your child’s circumstances change.

Where there’s been a change to parental income, we can work out the parental income test on their income for the current tax year. For example, if your child is studying in 2025 and parental income significantly changes, we may use parental income for the 2024-25 tax year.

If your child is studying in 2025, you need to tell us if parental income either:

• increases more than 25% from the 2023-24 tax year
• decreases significantly, and you think it will reduce for 2 years or more.

You need to tell us about changes in your income so we pay you the right amount. You can do this using the Assistance for Isolated Children (AIC) Current Tax Year Assessment form. You can submit it online, by post, fax or at a service centre.

If you can’t print the form, you can either:

• call the Assistance for isolated children line and ask us to send you the form
• go to a service centre and ask for the form.

Periods we exclude from the parental income test

The parental income test won’t apply if you or your partner get either:

• at least $1 of an income support payment each fortnight, not including Family Tax Benefit
• ABSTUDY Living Allowance
• Farm Household Assistance
• a Health Care Card, because you or your partner get the maximum rate of Family Tax Benefit.

We’ll apply the parental income test if both of the following apply:

• you get an income support payment
• your income support payment reduces to zero for one or more fortnights because of how much you or your partner earn.

The parental income test doesn’t apply if you have a Health Care Card and it’s not one of the following:

• Low Income Health Care Card
• Mobility Allowance or Carer Allowance card for a child with disability.

We’ll calculate your Additional Boarding Allowance. If the parental income test doesn’t apply, it’ll be assessed based on your child’s actual boarding costs.