That ICPA (Aust) lobby the Minister for Social Services and Services Australia to reduce the claim processing times for ABSTUDY.
In addition to our branches motion in 2024 regarding the slow claim processing period of 12-13 weeks for remote students to access the Tertiary Access payments it has come to our attention that this is also occurring to remote students when applying for ABSTUDY. In Queensland children who receive ABSTUDY are ineligible to receive their State- Living Away From Home Allowance and Federal Assistance For Isolated Children Basic Boarding Allowance which means they receive no assistance for Term 1 School Fees, uniforms, or the costs with travelling long distances to put their children in to start the school year until their ABSTUDY claim is processed. A distance education student transitioning to Boarding School in 2025 applied in November 2024 and was not approved until 12th March 2025 (Week 7 of Term 1) and the first payment wasn’t processed until 15th May in Term 2. This geographically isolated family had to bear the full cost of putting their child into Boarding School and flights home for Easter school holidays without a single cent in assistance.
