07 November 2013

Spiky EMTRs can also be prickly - how to really stick it to students


A little over 18 months ago I wrote a post about the way in which the Austudy income test seemed to me to be only half-built, causing substantial financial losses for some couples.  I finished it with a comment that the problem would only get worse over time.  There will be a few changes to Austudy payment from 1 January 2014, so with that earlier comment in mind I thought it might be interesting to see how the problem looks once these are in place.  And here’s a spoiler – it isn’t pretty.