At the end of 2007, home education students who were receiving the Youth Allowance received letters from Centrelink stating that their registration with the VRQA was now deemed insufficient evidence of study in a suitable course. Consequently their payments ceased.
The problem is one of two different levels of government – the VRQA is a state body and registration with them is sufficient evidence for the state government that home education is taking place.

Youth Allowance is a Social Security payment for young people based on the family’s means, which is paid through Centrelink, a federal body.  Centrelink’s policy is that to be eligible a young person under 18 normally needs to be a full-time student in approved education at an approved institution. Home educated students may be deemed to meet the educational requirements if the relevant State Authority has given specific approval for the student to undertake home study and the authority confirms that the study is full-time and conforms with, and will be accredited towards, the secondary qualification accredited by that authority. Some home educators were granted the allowance on the basis that their registration with the VRQA fully satisfied the eligibility criteria, but, at the end of 2007 Centrelink said that registration with the VRQA satisfies their first criterion but not the second, and that the allowance was therefore granted in error.

Home ed students with ACHS received letters to the same effect in 2009 as ACHS is no longer deemed by VRQA and/or Centrelink to meet the criteria of a full time course towards a qualification with a recognised institution. Contact Sue Wight for more details at robwight@optusnet.com.au

To avoid this problem, some home ed students look at alternatives to VCE.  Others have successfully entered ‘home education’ as a ’short course’ for a short term solution although the acceptance of home education as a short course is at the discretion of each Centrelink office.