What is a Tertiary Access Payment? : $3000 Centrelink Tertiary Access Payment Dates 2024
A payment to help students with the cost of moving from regional or remote areas for tertiary study. The Tertiary Access Payment (TAP) is a one off payment of up to $5,000. It’s 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 the payment you need to meet some rules. These include:
- moving from a regional or remote area for tertiary study
- starting tertiary study in the year after finishing year 12 or equivalent.
Regional areas are places that aren’t in or near a major city. You can check if your family home is in a regional or remote area using the Student Regional Area Search. You can claim this payment in your first year of tertiary study only. You can still claim TAP if you get ABSTUDY, Youth Allowance or Relocation Scholarship in your first year of study.
Who can get it
To get the Tertiary Access Payment, you need to meet some rules. You need to be an eligible student from a regional or remote area, moving away from home to study at a tertiary education provider. This payment is for those who start studying at any point in the 12 months immediately after completing year 12 or equivalent. If you’re eligible, you can only claim the Tertiary Access Payment (TAP) from 1 January to 31 December in your first year of tertiary study.
- an Australian resident meeting residence rules
- from an inner regional, outer regional or remote area
- moving to study at a tertiary education provider that’s at least 90 minutes away from your family home location by public transport
- have completed year 12 or equivalent
- studying a tertiary course at certificate IV or above in the 12 months immediately after completing year 12
- 22 or younger on the day you start your tertiary course
- have parents or guardians whose income is under the current combined parental income limit of $250,000.
You must also meet all of the study rules. If you get Youth Allowance or ABSTUDY and received your first Relocation Scholarship payment after completing Year 12 or equivalent, you may also get TAP.
Study rules you need to meet
To get the payment, you must be studying one of the following:
- university course
- Vocational Educational and Training (VET) course
- other higher education course.
You meet the rules for qualifying study if you do all of the following:
- study a certificate IV or above at an accredited Australian tertiary education provider
- study at least 75% of a full-time study load
- study a course with a minimum duration of one academic year.
You may still be eligible if you can’t study full time. This needs to be for a special reason and you’ll need to give us proof.
There are also rules you need to meet for the delivery of your study program. It must be one of the following:
- face-to-face
- a combination of face-to-face and online study
- at a Regional University Study Hub, including as an online student.
How much you can get
The Tertiary Access Payment is a payment of $3,000 or $5,000. How much you can get depends on where your family home is located.
Inner regional students
If you’re eligible, you can get a one off lump sum of $3,000 in the first half of your study year. We’ll pay you after you confirm your study details. You’ll need to meet all eligibility criteria at that time, including being enrolled in full time study.
Outer regional and remote students
If you’re an outer regional or remote student, you may be able to get this payment in 2 instalments.
First instalment
If you’re eligible, you can get an instalment of $3,000 in the first half of your study year. We’ll pay you after you confirm your study details. You’ll need to meet all eligibility criteria at that time, including being enrolled in full time study.
Second instalment
If you stay enrolled in full time study, you can get a second instalment of $2,000. We’ll pay you in either:
- September of the same year you started studying
- March in the following year, if you started studying in the second half of the year.
Enrolment checks
Before we pay you, we check you’re a current student. If you apply for this payment but aren’t a current student when we check your enrolment, we won’t pay you. You can only get this payment once, and only in your first year of study. This payment is not taxable.
Income from scholarships
The Tertiary Access Payment is considered an equity or merit based scholarship. This means we don’t normally count it as income when we check if you can get another payment from us. However, we do count equity or merit based scholarships as income in some situations. Any scholarship amount over $9,724 counts as income and may affect your payment rate for other payments. If you get more than one equity or merit based scholarship, the $9,724 applies to the total amount you get, not to each one.