A.02: Lakes District Branch

The BAHA is an important subsidy that assists families living in remote areas of our State who send their children away to school. The allowance provides financial relief for those eligible families who are constantly having to find money within tight budgets to cover the ever-increasing cost of school and boarding fees.

Boarding fees continue to rise on average by 2-8% per annum and the continued reduction of the BAHA allowance, increases the financial burden on parents accessing an education for their children.

The reduction of this allowance has seen rural and remote families leave and relocate to larger centres to ensure their children have access to affordable secondary education. For families who have no choice but to send their children away to boarding school, the increase in the gap fee; between what is charged, and the amount parents receive in financial support continues to widen.

For the 2022 school year, there is a gap fee of $4,647 between the boarding costs at a Residential College in WA and the AIC and BAHA payments that an eligible family receives from the Federal and State Government. This is an increase in the gap payable up from 2021 by 4.97%.

We therefore request that ICPA (WA) lobby the State Government for an increase to the BAHA on an annual basis in line with the CPI increase as is applied to the Federal AIC allowance; to minimise the financial impact on rural and remote families.