Update 26 June: I am pleased to see that this blog post is still getting a lot of views (194 page views to date)! If this has helped you, or if you have been successful in getting govt support, please drop me a line to let me know or hit the like button at the bottom of the post.
Unfortunately, Centrelink doesn’t support international students, so this advice is only relevant to Australian domestic PhD students. Sorry :(
Note: this advice is based on my own personal experience and circumstances. As your circumstances may differ you should investigate further. For example, people with income earning partners may not be eligible as this might push you over the income threshold. There also might be more support available for those with children.
There are two types of support you can receive from Centrelink as a domestic PhD student, depending on your situation. A Low Income Healthcare Card and the JobSeeker payment. Austudy and Youth Allowance are only available for undergraduate students.
tldr
1. Everyone should apply for a Low Income Healthcare Card asap.
2. Part time students should consider applying for JobSeeker.
3. During the pandemic, full time students should consider dropping to part time and applying for JobSeeker.
Low Income Healthcare Card
Main benefits: cheap mediation on the PBS, bulk-billed medical tests, concession public transport in some states (good for those states that don’t give PhD students a student fare).
This is one of the first things any new PhD student should do!
As most PhD scholarships/stipends are below minimum wage, most PhD students should be eligible for a Low Income Healthcare Card. At first glance a standard PhD scholarship looks to be over the income threshold, even more so if you have a top-up. However, there is a super secret exemption clause that states that $8355 of a scholarship does not count towards your income, which should put you back down under the income threshold. You’ll have to do the math yourself based on your exact scholarship amount and income situation.
Often Centrelink employees don’t know about this exemption, so you’ll probably need to explicitly tell them several times. You also need to make sure that you put your scholarship as a scholarship, not income on the application. It’s also worth annotating your payslips to say that the payment is scholarship, as HR usually doesn’t specify on payslips. Yes, it’s unnecessarily confusing and complicated.
Information about assessable income can be found here.
Eligibility is based on your income for the 8 weeks prior to your application, so you need to make sure you time your application well. If you are also planning to do some teaching work you should apply *before* your first pay that includes teaching, If you are not teaching then you should be able to apply at any time, unless you’ve just come from a well-paying job before starting your PhD.
Basically you just need to work out an 8 week period where you are only earning scholarship payments (or less), and apply then. Doing so will make sure you don’t waste time applying, waiting, and being rejected.
You’ll need to upload your payslips for the prior 8 weeks, which can be difficult if you’re just starting your PhD. At my university you can only access the webpage with your payslips if you have a staff number, which you don’t get until you start teaching. If you aren’t teaching and are only getting scholarship then you might need to contact HR and ask for some payslips to be sent through to you.
Your Healthcare Card will be valid for 12 months, after which you’ll have to reapply by submitting 8 weeks of payslips again. They often don’t send a reminder about this, so you might need to go into the Centrelink app or into MyGov and manually check around the time of your card expiry.
JobSeeker - normal times
Main benefits: the ability to pay rent and bills.
Note: If you are receiving a scholarship and are enrolled full-time then you’re not eligible for Jobseeker. However, if you’re off scholarship and enrolled part time, then you are eligible (~$700/fortnight).
We all know that the 3.5yr completion time is highly unrealistic, even for the most productive and well-supported students. It’s very common for PhDs to drop down to part time when their scholarship runs out so they can look for a job to pay the bills. That’s all well and good assuming you can find a job. There isn’t much work out there at the moment.
What most people don’t seem to know is that once you’re part time you can apply for JobSeeker. You’ll have to meet mutual obligations like going to meetings and applying for 10-20 jobs a month, but that’s relatively easy to do, especially as you should be looking for a job anyway. You just need to stress that you’re a part time student, looking for work, only working 15-20hrs on your “studies” a week, and provide some sort of documentation saying how many hours you “study”. Usually an excerpt from the scholarship/PhD rules is enough, or perhaps a letter from the Graduate Research School stating your minimum required hours. Centrelink and job centres are not used to dealing with PhD students and they don’t really understand what we do, so it’s easier to act like you’re an undergrad with a set number of “class hours” a week.
Note: I am not encouraging “dole bludging” or scamming the system. As a part time unpaid PhD you will likely already be looking for work. Getting JobSeeker just means you’ll be able to at least pay some of your rent and bills while you do that. It also helps if you’re only able to get casual or intermittent work, like teaching a few hours or invigilating exams.
JobSeeker - during Covid19
Everything from above applies now as well, except the temporary increase in payments to ~$1200/fortnight changes the game. This increased payment is now greater than most PhD scholarships, unless you’re getting a huge top-up (standard RTP is ~$1080/fortnight).
This opens up more options for PhD students to potentially extend their scholarships and candidature during the pandemic, while many universities are still expecting 100% productivity and progress.
If you are off scholarship, you;ve got nothing to lose by going part time and applying for JobSeeker. You’ll get an income, you may get some more time (depending on your university’s rules), and you might be able to reduce your work load, stress, and anxiety while trying to work during a global pandemic.
If you’re still getting scholarship payments, you could still go part time and apply for JobSeeker. You’d have to suspend your scholarship (if possible), and then start it up again when the pandemic is over. This means you might actually be able to be paid for the whole time you’re working on your PhD (what a novel thought!).
Please note: going part time and suspending your scholarship will be highly dependent on the rules at your particular university, as well as how supportive your GRS staff and your supervisors are. Like much in academia, the “rules” around things like this seem rather arbitrary, and something that is allowed for one person might not be allowed for another person in the same situation.
I hope this was helpful and enlightening for some people. There is a lot of important information out there that no one tells you about. I worked this all out on my own, so now you don’t have to!
Good luck, and stay safe!