Exempt equity and merit-based scholarships

Up to $7,223 of equity and merit-based scholarships is exempt from the income test. This applies to all payments with a personal, partner or parental income test.

This means these scholarships have less of an impact on your fortnightly Centrelink payment.

Any amount of the scholarships over $7,223 is still considered personal income and may affect your payment rate. The excess amount is averaged over the remaining fortnights of the period of the scholarship. This means it will have a consistent impact on your fortnightly rate of payment.

The $7,223 applies to the total amount of eligible scholarships that you receive - not to each scholarship. This amount is indexed each year.

About equity or merit-based scholarships

An equity or merit-based scholarship is any scholarship paid to a person so they can undertake study or research at an educational institution or for achievement in study or research. As a result, most scholarships relating to education would be considered equity or merit-based scholarships.