School kids bonus scrapped??

[BrightSparkles]

I read somewhere on fb today it is being scrapped.

It would have been nice but at the end of the day, another one bites the dust i guess.

[Astrid]

Yeah, Abbott vowed to scrap it, but he has to pass legislation to do so. It may not be done in time for the next payment, so it may still just be issued:

Schoolkids Bonus may be paid, despite Government vow to scrap it | News.com.au

[Tinks]

Will it be scrapped altogether or will it revert back to how it was before?

[feeb]

How was it before?? IS it for everyone or only Family tax A people?

[Tinks]

You used to apply for it when you did your tax. You could claim up to an amount but only if you'd spent that much on items from the list and could provide receipts. It was called the Education Tax Refund - or similar.

[TickToc]

I preferred it when it was claimed at tax time, providing receipts for items purchased made more sense to me then giving money to people to spend on items not necessarily used for school. It's like rewarding people without proof they have done what was asked.

[Astrid]

I preferred the bonus to the tax claim. There was a lot of confusion with claiming it through the tax system. I think it was wrong to call it a bonus though, supplement would have been better, as it was a reshuffling of funds, as opposed to "extra" money.

I put mine straight into school fees and put the second installment at July into uniforms. It helped us.

[Astrolady]

Yeah we nearly went a row of ****houses because we claimed the ETR wrong one year. Had to get letters from Centrelink to send to the ATO to prove we were worthy. So I'd much rather the "bonus" although I'd be quite happy to just receive the one lot in January to help pay school fees. I didn't think there was a need for the July one as well.

[Tinks]

I claimed it wrong one year too and still haven't fixed it up. Thanks for the reminder. It's probably too late now

[nothing2lose]

Is there an income limit for this? Or do you have to be a FTB recipient?? Why have I never claimed?!

[Astrolady]

You had to be getting FTB to claim the ETR and get the schoolkid bonus.

[nothing2lose]

You had to be getting FTB to claim the ETR and get the schoolkid bonus.

Aaahhhh..I don't get FTB. Thanks

[Jennifer13]

It will be scrapped if the Senate passes the Mineral Resources Rent Tax before 1 Jan (the funding is linked to this revenue stream). This is unlikely to happen, so you'll probably get it one more time before the new Senate sits next year in July, if you've received it before or qualify under FTB.

[AnyDream]

My recall from last time was you were eligible to receive it if you were eligible at a certain date (eg, 1 Jan for payment in Jan/Feb) and the eligibility was tied to whether your child was in school during that following six month period as well as the family income at the eligibility date.

[briggsy's girl]

Much have to qualify for ftba for a child to get school kids bonus. They have to have been a student in the previous six months AND be a qualifying student on a certain date (1jan or 30jun). The only people paid for a child not in school the prev six months were those starting primary school, who got a start up payment, and for those starting high school they got paid at a higher rate.

My understanding (though I've not done a lot of research as it hasn't passed legislation yet) is that it will be totally scrapped, not reverted back to the tax system. Just gone altogether

You'll find a lot of add on payments are labelled bonuses or supplements rather than increasing standard payments to include them. Thinking here of clean energy supplements in particular. Bonuses and supplements can be altered or scrapped. Reducing payments like ftb is much harder to do... I tend to try to think that anything labelled as a bonus or supplement is going to be short term. Great if it's not, but if it is, such is life.


I reckon parents having kids in 2009 (ish) have seemed to be hit pretty full on with the cutting of these payments. Major of is have kids that didn't get the old maternity immunisation allowance at 18 months - we just got the half payment. And then they cut it before our kids were old enough for the second half of the payment. The school kids bonus will likely be ditched before our kids get it. I swear we are jinxed lol

[Trillian]

I reckon parents having kids in 2009 (ish) have seemed to be hit pretty full on with the cutting of these payments. Major of is have kids that didn't get the old maternity immunisation allowance at 18 months - we just got the half payment. And then they cut it before our kids were old enough for the second half of the payment. The school kids bonus will likely be ditched before our kids get it. I swear we are jinxed lol

I reckon the flip side of that too is that those of us with older kids aren't too worried because while it was nice, we haven't always had the payment and if it's cut, life just goes back to the way it was before and it was nice while it lasted.

[briggsy's girl]

Given where I work, I tend to not rely on anything apart from ftb. It's just that sigh moment when you realise another bonus has been missed cos your kid was born at just the wrong time

[Beautiful Disaster]

I missed out on the immunisation thing altogether and looks like this too