I never thought living out of home, attending university and handling my own expenses would be an easy task. I knew it would be hard, and at times I’d be surviving on nothing but Mi Goreng. I knew that if I went out on the town and wanted to drink, I’d either have to lower myself to the depths of drinking goon, or turn on my non-existant “charm” to try and wrangle as many drinks as possible out of hormone-driven boys. I know I’m not the only university student who has had to make the decision between having food for the next two days or petrol for their car (This is just a hypothetical since I don’t drive). It’s a proven fact that students are indeed, one of the poorest demographics in Australia. So what I’m trying to figure out, is why the Australian Government making it harder and harder for university students to survive when we have a skills shortage?

When I finished school, my grade dispersed throughout the many universities in Aistralia. Some came to Brisbane, like me. Some went to Armidale. Some stayed in Coffs Harbour. Some went to Lismore. Some went to Melbourne. Some went to Sydney and some went to Wollongong. Recently, a girl who I had gone to school with since Kindergarten, who went to Sydney to pursue a degree in Journalism, had dropped out and moved home to the small town I used to live in on the Coffs Coast. Now, the reason she gave up on chasing after her career dreams wasn’t due to her inability to complete the course. It wasn’t due to changing her mind on careers. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Sydney. The reason she left university to return home was because she couldn’t afford to go to university and still have enough money to survive.

It was roughly a year and a half ago, that the government made changes to the way youth allowance works in Australia. Now, if you’re not from the nation that’s down under, youth allowance is a payment the government gives you every fornight if you’re under 25 and studying/doing an apprencticeship full time. The majority of students tend to rely on this payment. Sounds pretty great right? Well, that’s until you start to hear all the rules, quirks and regulations. Even though you’re considered a legal adult and able to do things for yourself from 18 years old, the government contradicts themselves. According to the youth allowance regulations, until you’re 25 (or now since the new laws have gone through from 2014 it’ll be 22), your parents are still meant to support you throughout the duration of your study. Hence, the amount you get paid depends on how much your parents earn until you’re 25 (or 22) even though you’re living outside of home, paying for your own bills, food, and general lifestyle. Ridiculous, no? But it gets better.

Until 2009, the was a viable option to this youth allowance dilemma. If you took a year off in between high school and university — a “gap year” — and managed to earn $18, 500 in 18 months, you’d qualify for Independant Youth Allowance. Basically, by earning that amount of money you proved you could take care of yourself and you’re parents’ income didn’t matter. Therefore, you would get the full amount of youth allowance, regardless of how much your parents earnt. However, the government decided too many kids from well-off families were cheating this rule and they changed it.

The new rule is in order to gain the right to be called self-supported, you need to work 30 hours a week, every week, for 18 months. Considering in Australia, we tend to finish our high schooling in late November, even if we started working full time straight after finishing school there’s going to be significant difficulties. One, the 18 months of full time work extends into your first year of university. If you’ve ever seen a first year university students’ timetable, you’ll understand why this is just a ridiculous expectation. Also, take it from a university student who works around 20-30 hours a week, plus full time university, it is NOT an easy task to juggle a lot of work plus study. Then if you need to relocate to attend university, how on earth are you expected to pick up a full time job within a few weeks or arriving in a brand new city? Some people with extensive experience search for months before finding a job in cities like Brisbane or Sydney. Yet as STUDENTS, the government thinks we can fin a full time job within about three weeks.

I can understand why the rules were changed, as there were serveral people taking advantage of them. However, there are even more students in my situation now who are suffering from it. They are being forced to drop out of a chance at a career and to provide the country with skills or an opportunity to give the country something they’ve never seen before, simply because we can’t afford to stay in university. According to youth allowance, my parents “earn too much” for me to get youth allowance. However, my parents have a mortgage and they’re own bills. What the hell makes the government think they can afford to pay for my rent, food, books, bills, as well as their own? Also, it’s not as if my parents are earning a lot of money! We’re not an upper-class family. My family is a lower-middle class family. Why are we being treated the same as people who can afford to pay for their university degree outright, when I’ll spend the rest of my life paying off my university degree? I’m 19, hence I’m an adult. Why should my parents be expected to pay for my bills as well as their own? I’m now working two jobs just to able to afford to survive throughout university.

The government need to take a long hard look at their laws concerning youth allowance and tertiary education in Australia. Right now, they are loosing a valuable skill base because students can’t afford to stay in university. Who knows? The way things are going, I might not even be able to afford to stay in university. It’s not something I want to consider, but a distinct possibility all the same. Us students have just gotta hope the Australian Government pulls together it’s tertiary education system sooner rather than later!