Students receiving a fortnightly education allowance under MRCAETS for secondary or tertiary education may also be eligible for energy payments. 　

The Energy Supplement (ES) is part of the Household Assistance Package, which provides financial assistance to members of the veteran and defence community to help meet the cost-of-living impact of the carbon price. The ES (previously the Clean Energy Supplement) commenced for recipients of fortnightly MRCAETS payments on 1 January 2014.

Payment is administered through Services Australia.

The Income Support Bonus (ISB) is paid to eligible students every six months to assist with cost of living pressures. To be eligible to receive the ISB, a person must be: 

•  receiving an education allowance under the MRCAETS on 20 March and/or 20 September (test dates), and 
• in secondary or tertiary education and aged: 
  • 16 years or older, or 
  •  under 16 and receiving an education allowance at the double orphan, homeless, or living away from home rate. 

A person does not need to claim the ISB. It is automatically paid to the person (or persons) receiving the education allowance. If a shared care arrangement exists for the payment of the education allowance, those proportions will be applied to the ISB. 

Amount and taxation 

The current ISB amount can be found in the payment rates chart. The ISB is tax-free, not subject to a means test and is not included as income for income test purposes. 

FTB is a two-part payment that helps with the cost of raising children and is a payment made by the Department of Human Services to a family for general costs, not specifically to help with education costs. Family Tax Benefit (FTB) payments are non-taxable and there is no capacity to make FTB payments to the child. The broader scope of FTB means that the benefits derived from it extend to the whole family - not only to the students in the family. This should be taken into consideration when families with secondary school students aged 16-17 are deciding whether to receive FTB or an education allowance under the Education Schemes, as some families may be financially better off to remain on FTB until the child finishes secondary schooling. Both DVA and Services Australia can assist the family in deciding which payment is more financially beneficial.

If a family chooses to receive FTB payments, the child is still eligible for guidance, counselling, special assistance and additional tuition under the Education Scheme. 

Special Case – separated parents

Where the parents of a child are separated, it may be that one parent wishes to receive a share of FTB (according to their FTB shared care percentage) from Services Australia, while the child’s other parent wishes to receive an amount of MRCAETS payment that corresponds with their shared care percentage from DVA.

There is no bar in policy from either DVA or the Department of Social Services/Services Australia from this occurring.  The relevant family assistance law (s22A of the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999) precludes an individual from receiving both payments at once. As the explanatory memorandum confirms, this is to prevent an individual receiving both payments at the same time and is not intended to preclude one member of a shared care separated couple from choosing to make a different choice than their ex-partner.

Therefore, in cases where parents are separated, share care of a child, and one parent wishes to surrender MRCAETS and continue receiving their percentage of FTB, but the other parent wishes to surrender FTB and continue receiving their percentage of MRCAETS, no individual is receiving both payments at the same time, so the notion of “double-dipping” does not apply and the intent of the law is served.

MRCAETS is a Prescribed Educational Scheme (PES) under the Social Security Act 1991.

A child under 16 years of age who is in receipt of payments under a PES is not precluded from payment of FTB Part A (or Part B if applicable).

A child between 16 and 24 years of age who is in receipt of payments under a PES is precluded from payment of FTB Part A (or Part B if applicable).