Hello everyone! For many students, centerlink can be the absolute core of our finances, and thankfully, is still available (and sometimes only available!) should you go away on exchange. This is only eligible for students who will gain credit towards their degree while they are away, and there are a few things you must do to ensure that you do not have your centerlink money cut off while you are away (it happens too often). So,
To start, You must provide a letter from the university stating the details of the exchange (specifically the dates and that it counts towards your degree). Just ask your exchange unit to send you this letter when you recieve your acceptance pack from your host university. You must submit this to centerlink online- make sure they have it and approve it before you go!!!
Then, Change your profile to receive the ” away from home” rate, which can be more than those who receive centerlink while living at home 🙂
Unfortunately, rent assistance is not available for those going overseas, so can actually become a drain.
I also recommend that you give authorisation to a parent or guardian to be able to access (though not edit) your account while you are gone, this can be useful in cases such as you’re not receiving money, etc) this can even have an expiry date so that your elected person will be locked out from the day you arrive home 🙂
Finally, ensure that you have, and know the password to, your centerlink online account (mygov) so that you can moniter your payments while away.
Final note!!!
Centerlink will only pay for 10 days before or after your exchange, if this is important to you and your finances, don’t spend too much extra time in the country.
Ladies Forth 