Returning Student Application
Returning student application
The returning application will be available if you have received payment for a Student Loan and/or Student Allowance in the last 12 months. The application will be mostly pre-filled with the information you provided on your last application.
If the drop-down list does not include the application that you want to make you will need to click on the ‘Apply for Financial Assistance’ to complete the full application.
You must tick the ‘Confirmed’ check box for each section to confirm that you have checked and updated your details.
Once you have submitted your application it may take up to 24 hours to process, you can then track its progress in MyStudyLink.
The Returning Application is only available for Student Allowance and Student Loan. If you want to apply for Jobseeker Support Student Hardship or Accommodation Supplement you need to go to ‘Apply for Financial Assistance’.
If you need to apply for Child Disability Allowance, Childcare Subsidy/OSCAR, Disability Allowance or Child Disability Allowance you can go to our website for more information and to download an application form.
Privacy Statement
Our privacy notice outlines what we do with your personal information. This includes personal information collected by:
- StudyLink
- Work and Income
- Senior Services
- MSD Housing Assessment
- Youth Service
- Community Partnerships and Programmes.
The notice shares information about:
- why we collect your personal information
- how we use your personal information
- when we share your personal information
- how we keep your personal information safe
- how you can access and change your personal information.
It also tells you how to make a privacy complaint and who to contact if you have a privacy question.
Read our privacy notice on the Work and Income website
Your obligations
When you get financial help form us you need to meet all your obligations. If you don’t, your payments could stop – and in some cases you could be prosecuted. Here are your obligations.
If things change
You must tell us straight away if either you or your partner:
- Have a change in your study situation (such as withdrawing from a course or dropping a paper)
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Have a change in your work situation (such as starting part-time, casual or full-time work)
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Intend to travel overseas
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Have changes to your living situation, including:
- Starting or ending a marriage, a civil union or a de facto relationship with the same or opposite sex or
- Separation or
- A change in the number of children you support
- Have changes to your income in any week or changes to your financial circumstances
- Have changes to your personal details (such as name, address or bank account number)
- Become self-employed or start to run a business
- Are imprisoned or held in custody on remand
- Are admitted to or discharged from hospital
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Have any other changes that may affect whether you can get a Student Allowance.
Be honest with us
Once you submit this application you are acknowledging that the information you give us is true and you have not left anything out. You understand that your payments may be reviewed and cancelled if you:
- Make a false statement or
- Don’t answer all the questions in full or
- Don’t tell us about changes in your circumstances that could affect your (and your partner’s) eligibility and/or entitlement.
If this happens, you understand that you or your partner will have to pay back the total amount of any overpayment plus collection costs, and you may be prosecuted.
Relationship with your parents
Relationship with only one parent
This is where you are separated and independent from one of your parents. There could be a range reasons for this, for example if contact with your parent would cause significant emotional harm to one or both of you.
No relationship with parents
This is where exceptional circumstances make it unreasonable for you to live with and get financial support from either parent.
Cash assets
Cash assets include anything you own that can readily convert into cash such as savings, shares, stocks, loans to others, or the net equity of property you own but don't live in.
Dependent children
For the Student Allowance a child is someone:
- who is under 24 years old and lives with you at least 50 percent of the time and
- whose well-being and financial support is your responsibility.
This can include stepchildren, children at boarding school, adopted or whāngai children, grandchildren or mokopuna. It does not include children:
- who earn more than $80 a week before tax, or get a benefit, Student Allowance or similar type of payment and
- for whom you are paid a Work and Income Orphans or Unsupported Child's Benefit.
CPI increase
If you select yes and if there is an increase to the Consumer Price Index, StudyLink will apply that increase to the amount of Student Loan Living costs that can be borrowed. This increase will apply from the 1st of April.
Loan Performance Threshold
The amount of study or workload of a course is measured in EFTS (Equivalent Full-Time Student). Each course you enrol in has an EFTS value. To answer this question, you need to know the EFTS value of all the courses you have done since you first got a Student Loan for study ending in 2009 or later. This includes both study that you got a Student Loan for, and any study that you funded in other ways. Add together the EFTS values of all relevant courses. To check the EFTS value of a course, ask your education provider.
Loan Performance Requirements
This question is about the results of all the study you have done in the last five years. You need to know the total number of EFTS you have studied, and the total number of EFTS you have passed. To check the EFTS value of a course, ask your education provider.
To answer “Yes” to this question, the total EFTS passed must be more than, or equal to, the total EFTS failed.
Allowance Performance Requirements
Passing more than half of a full-time course is based on the EFTS value of the last tertiary course you undertook and received Student Allowance for. For example if you studied a full-time semester course of 0.4 EFTS, you would need to have passed at least 0.2001 EFTS to continue to be eligible for the allowance. If you have not yet received the results from the last course that you studied, answer yes to this question.
Your study results will be verified by StudyLink with the Ministry of Education. If you answer "yes" but it is later confirmed that you didn't pass more than half the work of a full-time tertiary course, you may have to repay any payments you have received. If you have not yet received your results, or you are unsure whether you have passed more than half of your last course or not, answer ‘Not Sure’ to this question. Please let us know once you have this information so we can progress your application.
Exceptional circumstances
If you did not meet the performance requirements for Student Allowances or Student Loan but you can show this was due to reasons beyond your control, select yes. You will need to send us evidence of those circumstances.
Are you an Overdue Borrower
If you have an overdue Student Loan amount of $500 or more where at least some of that amount has been outstanding for a year or more, select yes.
Overdue Student Loan amounts include all late payment interest, penalties, amounts under instalment arrangement and unpaid repayment obligations which have not been paid by the date Inland Revenue requested the repayment by.
We will contact Inland Revenue to check your answer. You can check if you have any amount in default through Inland Revenue’s secure online services – you need to be registered for this service.
Undischarged bankrupt
Bankruptcy is a legal process where you are officially declared as bankrupt under the Insolvency Act 2006. Select no, if you have never been bankrupt or if you have been bankrupt, but are now officially discharged.
No Asset Procedure Debtor
A No Asset Debtor is a person who has applied for an alternative to bankruptcy through the No Asset Procedure.