Family Home Details Help

About this service

Based on the Australian Statistical Geography Standard this service categorises the remoteness of your family home, and if required the campus you are studying at.

Who should use this service?

You should use this service if you are claiming for or receiving Youth Allowance, Tertiary Access Payment or ABSTUDY and need to live away from home to study full time.

You may be eligible for a Relocation Scholarship if either:

  • your family home is in an Inner Regional, Outer Regional, Remote or Very Remote area, or
  • the campus that you study at is in an Inner Regional, Outer Regional, Remote or Very Remote area.

You may be able to be assessed as independent through your work history if you are a student from an Inner Regional, Outer Regional, Remote or Very Remote area.

You may be eligible for the Tertiary Access Payment if your family home is in an Inner Regional, Outer Regional, Remote or Very Remote area.

If your family home is located outside Australia, then you cannot use this service at this time. Please contact us to assess your eligibility.

What will you need to use this service?

You will need to provide the address of your family home (please click on “family home” to determine the address required for this service). If your property does not have a street address you are also given the option to provide the latitude and longitude coordinates of your family home. You also need to provide details of the campus you are studying at.

Disclaimer

In order to get an accurate result, the exact address with all the following information must be provided:

  • Street name and number
  • Town/suburb
  • State/territory
  • Postcode

OR

  • The latitude and longitude coordinates

In situations where the address provided does not contain all the relevant information, the remote area displayed may not be accurate.

Independent

To qualify for self-supporting independence through paid employment for individuals from a regional or remote area, you must:

  • Have worked part-time (at least 15 hours a week) for at least two years since leaving school, or
  • Have left secondary school for at least 14 months and have earned at least 75 per cent of the maximum rate of the pay under Wage Level A of the National Training Wage schedule in a modern award in a 14 month period.

You must meet one of the above criteria and meet all the following conditions to be assessed as independent:

  • You are undertaking full time study, and
  • You are required to live away from home to study, and
  • Your combined parental income for the appropriate tax year is less than $150,000, and
  • Your family home is in a location categorised under the Remoteness Structure as Inner Regional Australia (note: this only applies after January 1 2012), Outer Regional Australia, Remote Australia or Very Remote Australia.

Geographical location

The Australian Bureau of Statistics creates categories and allocates locations based on census information.

Family home

If you are claiming independence under the self-supporting criterion, the family home is the principal home where you would normally live if you weren't required to live away from home to study.

If you qualify for Relocation Scholarship and you are dependent and required to live away from home, the family home is the principal home where you would normally live if you weren't required to live away from home to study.

If you qualify for Relocation Scholarship and you are independent on the criteria:

  • unable to live at home
  • orphan
  • parents cannot exercise responsibility
  • refugee (Youth Allowance only)
  • in state care (Youth Allowance only)
  • specially disadvantaged (Youth Allowance only)
  • have (or have had) a dependent child
  • currently have care or custody of another person’s child (ABSTUDY only)
  • tribal initiation (ABSTUDY only),
  • have been in lawful custody for a cumulative period of six months or more (ABSTUDY only), or
  • have returned to live in an Indigenous community after having been adopted or fostered by a non-Indigenous family for more than two years (ABSTUDY only)

then the family home is the home you resided at six months prior to commencing your first course of higher education study.

Help on entering latitude and longitude

This service only allows one format to enter your latitude and longitude in:

  1. Degrees, minutes and seconds or decimal seconds, for example: S 36° 12' 40.34" , therefore only whole numbers can be entered in the degree and minutes fields, whereas decimals can be entered in the seconds field.

Please keep in mind:

  1. That all latitude coordinates must be South and all the longitude coordinates must be East.
  2. The datum used is WGS84.

Latitude

Latitude is an angular measurement in degrees (marked with °) ranging from 0° at the equator (low latitude) to 90° at the poles (90° N or +90° for the North Pole and 90° S or −90° for the South Pole).

The latitude coordinates for this service must be South and provided in Degrees, minutes and seconds.

You may retrieve your latitude coordinates from your vehicle GPS unit or from various online map sites.

For example: The latitude for Cairns reef is 15° 42' 0"

Longitude

Longitude is an angular measurement in degrees (marked with °) ranging from +180° eastward and −180° westward from the Prime Meridian, which is 0° (zero degrees).

Longitude, as opposed to latitude does not maintain a constant distance between degrees since the primary measurement is time, not distance. This means if you are near the North Pole, you can gain many degrees of longitude West by travelling a relatively short distance.

The longitude coordinates for this service must be East and provided in Degrees, minutes and seconds.

You may retrieve your latitude coordinates from your vehicle GPS unit or from various online map sites.

For example: The longitude for Cairns reef is 145° 34' 0"

Campus Details Help Text

Relocation Scholarship

The Relocation Scholarship is for eligible full-time ABSTUDY and Youth Allowance students who are enrolled in an accredited higher education or preparatory course at a higher education institution.

It is a lump sum payment paid each year to help with the costs of living away from home.

To qualify for this payment you must:

  • be a dependent person who has to live away from home to study, or
  • be independent for reasons other than age, work history or through being a member of a couple
  • have moved, or are moving, to or from a regional area for study purposes.

For further information go to servicesaustralia.gov.au/relocation scholarship.

Help on entering latitude and longitude

This service only allows one format to enter your latitude and longitude in:

  1. Degrees, minutes and seconds or decimal seconds, for example: S 36° 12' 40.34" , therefore only whole numbers can be entered in the degree and minutes fields, whereas decimals can be entered in the seconds field.

Please keep in mind:

  1. That all latitude coordinates must be South and all the longitude coordinates must be East.
  2. The datum used is WGS84.

Latitude

Latitude is an angular measurement in degrees (marked with °) ranging from 0° at the equator (low latitude) to 90° at the poles (90° N or +90° for the North Pole and 90° S or −90° for the South Pole).

The latitude coordinates for this service must be South and provided in Degrees, minutes and seconds.

You may retrieve your latitude coordinates from your vehicle GPS unit or from various online map sites.

For example: The latitude for Cairns reef is 15° 42' 0"

Longitude

Longitude is an angular measurement in degrees (marked with °) ranging from +180° eastward and −180° westward from the Prime Meridian, which is 0° (zero degrees).

Longitude, as opposed to latitude does not maintain a constant distance between degrees since the primary measurement is time, not distance. This means if you are near the North Pole, you can gain many degrees of longitude West by travelling a relatively short distance.

The longitude coordinates for this service must be East and provided in Degrees, minutes and seconds.

You may retrieve your latitude coordinates from your vehicle GPS unit or from various online map sites.

For example: The longitude for Cairns reef is 145° 34' 0"

Results Help

Family home

If you are claiming independence under the self-supporting criterion, the family home is the principal home where you would normally live if you weren't required to live away from home to study.

If you qualify for Relocation Scholarship or the Tertiary Access Payment and you are dependent and required to live away from home, the family home is the principal home where you would normally live if you weren't required to live away from home to study.

If you qualify for Relocation Scholarship or the Tertiary Access Payment and you are independent on the criteria:

  • unable to live at home
  • orphan
  • parents cannot exercise responsibility
  • refugee (Youth Allowance only)
  • in state care (Youth Allowance only)
  • specially disadvantaged (Youth Allowance only)
  • have (or have had) a dependent child
  • currently have care or custody of another person’s child (ABSTUDY only)
  • tribal initiation (ABSTUDY only),
  • have been in lawful custody for a cumulative period of six months or more (ABSTUDY only), or
  • have returned to live in an Indigenous community after having been adopted or fostered by a non-Indigenous family for more than two years (ABSTUDY only)

then the family home is the home you resided at six months prior to commencing your first course of higher education study.

Geographical location

The Australian Bureau of Statistics creates categories and allocates locations based on census information.

Independent

To qualify for self-supporting independence through paid employment for individuals from a regional or remote area, you must:

  • Have worked part-time (at least 15 hours a week) for at least two years since leaving school, or
  • Have left secondary school for at least 14 months and have earned at least 75 per cent of the maximum rate of the pay under Wage Level A of the National Training Wage schedule in a modern award in a 14 month period.

You must meet one of the above criteria and meet all the following conditions to be assessed as independent:

  • You are undertaking full time study, and
  • You are required to live away from home to study, and
  • Your combined parental income for the appropriate tax year is less than $150,000, and
  • Your family home is in a location categorised under the Remoteness Structure as Inner Regional Australia (note: this only applies after January 1 2012), Outer Regional Australia, Remote Australia or Very Remote Australia.

Relocation Scholarship

The Relocation Scholarship is for eligible full-time ABSTUDY and Youth Allowance students who are enrolled in an accredited higher education or preparatory course at a higher education institution.

It is a lump sum payment paid each year to help with the costs of living away from home.

To qualify for this payment you must:

  • be a dependent person who has to live away from home to study, or
  • be independent for reasons other than age, work history or through being a member of a couple
  • have moved, or are moving, to or from a regional area for study purposes

For further information go to https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/relocation-scholarship.

Tertiary Access Payment

The Tertiary Access Payment is a one-off payment to help eligible students with the cost of moving to study. This is for study after you’ve finished year 12 or equivalent.

To get Tertiary Access Payment you need to meet some rules. These include:

  • moving from a regional or remote area for tertiary study
  • starting tertiary study directly after finishing year 12 or equivalent with no gap year

Students from an inner regional area can test their eligibility if they commence tertiary study from 1 January 2022.

To find out the full conditions, go to https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/tertiaryaccesspayment.

Last Updated 10 December 2021