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  1. Home
  2. In study
  3. Study details
  4. Student Allowance obligations

In study

  • Change in circumstances
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  • Study details
    • Break between study
    • Change study dates
    • Claim course related costs
    • Drop papers
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    • Pick up papers
    • Summer school
    • Unpaid work or research
    • Withdraw
    • Working while studying

Student Allowance obligations

If you are receiving Student Allowance, you will be responsible for keeping us informed of any changes you have.

These include:

You must tell us about any changes in your circumstances. These include:

  • income changes for you and your partner
  • contact details change for you and your partner
  • where you live or who you live with changes
  • you or your partner go overseas

The quickest and easiest way to tell us about any changes is through your MyStudyLink account.


MyStudyLink

You must tell us straight away if you drop a paper or withdraw from a course.

Withdrawing from a paper

If you drop a paper, you may not be studying full-time anymore and may not be able to continue getting a student allowance. If you don’t tell us, you could be overpaid and have to pay the money back.

Our definition of full-time study

Withdrawing from a course

If you withdraw from your course, we have to stop your student allowance from the day you stop studying full-time.

You must have passed more than half of the last tertiary course that you got a Student Allowance for to qualify for it again. We'll confirm this with the Ministry of Education (MoE).

What happens if you didn't pass

You may still be able to get a Student Allowance if you've had something significant happen in your life which means you failed your course.

If you failed your course for no acceptable reason, you won’t be able to get another Student Allowance until you either:

  • pass more than half of another approved course run by an approved education provider, without getting a Student Allowance (eg, you can get a Student Loan for the course but not a Student Allowance)
  • repay the full amount of Student Allowance you received for the course.
Read more about performance for Student Allowance
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Go to Ministry of Social Development's website Te Kāwanatanga o Aotearoa / New Zealand Government