VET Student Loans

Eligibility

To be eligible for VET Student Loans, a person must:

To get a VET Student Loan, you must:

1. be an eligible student
2. be studying an approved course
3. be studying with an approved course provider
4. apply to the government using the approved form, and
5. confirm your engagement and progression to continue to access the loan throughout your course.

You must meet ALL of these criteria – further detailed below.

You are:

• an Australian citizen, or
• a New Zealand Special Category Visa (SCV) holder who meets the long-term residency requirements, or
• a permanent humanitarian visa holder.

You have not exceeded the FEE HELP limit.
You are enrolled with an approved course provider in an approved course and have enrolled in accordance with the application requirements.
You are studying the approved course primarily at a campus in Australia.

Your course meets the course requirements, if it:

• is specified on the VET Student Loans (courses and loan caps) determination (the courses and loan caps determination); and
• delivered by an approved course provider; and
• is a qualification of diploma, advanced diploma, graduate certificate or graduate diploma in the Australian Qualifications Framework.

You have been assessed by your approved course provider as academically suited to undertake the approved course by either:

• providing your Australian Year 12 Certificate; OR
• providing evidence of successful completion of an Australian Qualifications Framework Certificate IV or higher qualification (where the language of instruction is English); OR
• displaying competence at Exit Level 3 in the Australian Core Skills Framework in both reading and numeracy through an approved Language, Literacy and Numeracy test.
• In addition, your approved provider must reasonably believe you show competence in completing the course.

You meet the Tax File Number (TFN) requirements.
You have a Unique Student Identifier (USI) or are otherwise exempt.
You have read the 2017 VET Student Loans information booklet.
You have given the required documents to your approved course provider and submitted the loan application form by the first census day no less than two business days after enrolling.

Please Note:

• VET student loans will not be approved for students who do not meet eligibility requirements.
• It is important to understand that a VET student loan gives rise to a HELP debt that continues to be a debt due to the Commonwealth until it is repaid.

Loan Cap & Repayments

The current VET Student Loans limit is $106,319 for most students and the income threshold for compulsory repayment is $46,620 for the 2019 – 2020 income year. You will be able to place the entire $13,990 (for the HLT52015 Diploma of Remedial Massage course) on a VET Student Loan.

• VET Student Loans will not be approved for students who do not meet eligibility requirements;
• A VET Student Lon gives rise to a HELP debt that will remain a personal debt until it is repaid to the Commonwealth; and;
• The loan may, until the debt is repaid, reduce your take home (after tax) wage or salary and may reduce your borrowing capacity;
• You may wish to seek independent financial advice before applying for a loan;
• You be required, during the course to communicate your agreement that the Secretary continue to use the VET student loan to pay tuition fees for the course;
• The maximum amount of a VET student loan that may be available for the course cannot be greater than your remaining FEE HELP balance;
• The amount of HELP debt you may accrue if you received the maximum amount of VET student loan for the course (the debt could be up to 120% of the loan);
• Tuition fees are reasonably apportioned across a specified number of sequential fee periods and will contain at least one census day;
• Once enrolled, it is important to notify ACFB of any change of contact details.

What is a Census Date?

• A date by which enrolment may be cancelled without incurring tuition fees for the course or a part of the course is a census day.

Loan Fee & Exemptions

The Australian Government charges a 20% loan fee which applies for VET Student Loans accessed by full fee paying/fee for service students. The loan fee does not count towards your FEE-HELP limit. Students who are eligibly for Skills First funding are not charged a loan fee.

Electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (eCAF)

During the enrolment process students will be sent a link to access their eCAFs. Each student must submit their eCAFs prior to the first census day for which they wish to access a loan.

Relevant documents are available below and there is also additional information on the following website: http://studyassist.gov.au/sites/StudyAssist/

If you would like more information and to enrol, please contact our friendly team on 03 9873 4858 and we will be more than happy to assist you.