Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all the members for their contributions to this second reading debate. By way of summarisation of the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Simplifying Student Payments) Bill 2016 at the second reading debate, I would note that the first measure in the bill will from 1 January or 1 July after royal assent—the first of those two dates—introduce four changes that will simplify the student payment means test and remove anomalies.

Firstly, the family tax benefit income test and the youth parental income test will be harmonised so that family tax benefit income details can be automatically re-used for the youth parental income test. Parents will no longer be required to resubmit their income information to support a youth payment claim by one of their children. Secondly, the integrity of the student payment means test will be improved by removing an anomaly that allows some partnered youth allowance and Austudy recipients to be subject to a more generous assets tests than applies to all other youth allowance and Austudy recipients. Thirdly, integrity will also be improved by extending the trust and company rules that already apply to all other income support payments to student payments. As a result, all of the income or assets held by students through a trust or company will be taken into account when establishing their entitlement to a payment. Finally, the pension income test exemption for regular gifts from immediate family members will be aligned across the social security system so that it also applies for student payments and other social security benefits.

The second measure in this bill will ensure that for the first time from 1 January 2019 all students receiving income support will receive a concession card. This change will allow all students receiving youth allowance, Austudy and Abstudy living allowance to automatically receive a healthcare card. This will guarantee that around 240,000 students will receive pharmaceutical benefits scheme prescriptions at the concessional rate and access to the lower threshold of the extended Medicare safety net when they receive a student payment. It may also provide greater access to bulk-billing, allowing students to focus on their studies without worrying about medical costs. This measure simplifies eligibility for the healthcare card rather than requiring students to meet additional requirements for the low-income healthcare card, as per current practice. Both cards provide the same Australian government health concessions. Under the current rules, student payment recipients are the only income support recipients not to qualify for an automatic issue healthcare card. These students have to make a claim for a low-income healthcare card if their income is below a certain limit in order to be issued a concession card. Under this measure, the healthcare card will be available to all student payment recipients as soon as they start receiving an income support payment. The measure will enhance a streamlined administrative arrangement for student payment recipients and support the implementation of improved student payment systems. It will improve consistency across the income support system by ensuring all income support recipients are automatically issued a concession card. It provides sensible solutions to a simplified and efficient welfare system.

The third measure in the bill will from 1 January or 1 July—the first of those two dates after royal assent—simplify the process for adopting the latest version of the Australian Statistical Geography Standard Remoteness Structure published by the Australian Statistician which is used to assess eligibility for student payments under the Social Security Act 1991. Currently, youth allowance recipients whose family home is in a location geographically categorised under the remoteness structure as inner regional Australia, outer regional Australia, remote Australia or very remote Australia can access additional benefits or concessional qualification requirements under the act that are not available to students from major city areas. These additional benefits for regional and remote students are in recognition that students from these areas are more likely to have to relocate to study and to have significantly lower participation rates in higher education than students from major city areas.

Since 2011, the geographical remoteness structure used in the Social Security Act to determine eligibility for those additional benefits is the 2006 Australian Standard Geographical Classification, which is published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. However, this remoteness structure is out of date. It was superseded in January 2013 by the 2011 Australian Statistical Geography Standard Remoteness Structure. The remoteness structure is updated every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics following each census. The next update to the remoteness structure is due in January 2018. This measure will introduce amendments to the act so that qualification for student payments will draw upon the updated remoteness structure without the need for future legislative amendment. This measure will simplify the administration of student payments and will ensure that the assessment of qualification for youth allowance and the relocation scholarship is based on the latest available information on geographical classification.

Together, the measures in this bill will assist in simplifying and supporting access to the payment system and support future welfare reform. There is also an amendment that will be moved during the reading stage. The amendment will add a fourth measure to the bill that will give effect to a 2016 election commitment. It is part of a package to support regional students' access to education. This measure will amend the rules governing when a person is to be regarded as independent for the purposes of youth allowance and the relocation scholarship. It will reduce from 18 to 14 months the period that young people from regional and remote areas of Australia have to earn the amount required to satisfy the workforce independence provisions. This measure is to commence from 1 January 2018. The measure recognises that regional and remote students face additional costs in pursuing tertiary education and, similar to the measure to automatically update the geographical classification used to assess eligibility for student payments, it recognises that regional students have much lower participation rates in higher education than students from major cities. The reduced period from 18 months to 14 months will allow students to qualify for Youth Allowance four months sooner than under current arrangements.

Students will be able to take a gap year at the end of secondary school and, subject to them satisfying the upper qualification requirements for Youth Allowance, will be able to receive payment as independent the following year. Students who are considered independent for the purposes of Youth Allowance do not have their rate of payment affected by parental income, as is the case for dependent recipients. Currently students who qualify for Youth Allowance under these arrangements may commence study prior to qualifying for student payments or take two gap years before commencing study and qualifying for payment. The longer students are disengaged from study after completing secondary school, such as for more than a year, the less likely they are to commence or complete tertiary study. It is estimated that approximately 3700 regional and remote students will qualify for Youth Allowance as independent under this measure.

I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation and proposed amendments announced.

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