Centrelink is so useless.
It's possible to apply for student youth allowance 12 or 13 weeks before classes start, which for most people means applying around mid december and not getting paid until mid jan at the earliest. You could try cancelling your job seeker youth allowance around then and applying for student youth allowance as a new claim, problem being you'd have to not get paid for a bit and hope it worked.
It's a bit weird that they put you on job seeker in the first place - if you have a medical exemption you should be able to keep student YA without a full time study load.
I have heard that sometimes if you contact your local MP they can help, idk how useful they actually are, but it could be worth a try.
Btw you should be eligible to get a $1000 loan each semester which gets added onto your hecs debt.
Thanks for your reply. Believe it or not, Centrelink have been a million times more helpful and understanding than the job agency, which I think speaks enough for the year I've had. At one point, I had four people from Centrelink sitting with me (with a full waiting room) for 20 minutes to try to find away around the system, but nothing changed. Twice Centrelink have handed me numbers to call to complain about the job agency, but I don't really like to be that person - I am so grateful to have this system, even if it can be beyond frustrating at times.
It's a great idea to cancel and reapply, however I have rent as I am on the lease and I don't think they'll take kindly to that
Believe me, though. I'd rather be hungry and homeless than experience my worse flare ups of pain - and I will get bad flareup if they make me work so I'm in a bit of a tough place - go along with it and have my health decline even further, or don't and lose my payment, break my lease and everything that follows.
Yes, everyone says the same thing. They gave me an assessment, told me because one subject was equal to around 8-10 hours a week, I could study or work that amount. They gave me an exemption until June (ish) and then everything went a bit sour. Apparently because they already assessed my health conditions for 8-10 hours, I can't get another exemption and a medical certificate is worthless because they have already assessed me for that health issue. So unless I have another health condition that will keep me from working/studying...
I'll think about contacting someone higher - I don't like making a fuss but everyone I talk to about it is really confused - even Centrelink.
That's fantastic! I'll definitely keep it in mind. - on second thought, I just looked and I think you need to be on youth allowance as a student to get it. Sigh.
Thanks for your help. If anyone else has any thoughts I'd really appreciate them!