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Change to VSL Student Eligibility – Pacific Engagement Visa
On 14 November 2023, the Parliament passed the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Australia’s Engagement in the Pacific) Bill 2023. The Bill extends a range of support measures to Pacific and Timor-Leste nationals that migrate to Australia as permanent residents. This includes extending VSL student eligibility from 1 February 2024 (via changes to the VET Student Loans Act 2016) to individuals that hold a Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV). This will enable PEV holders to access VSL loans for studying VSL courses that have census dates on or after 1 February 2024.
The 2024 VSL student eCAF will be updated to include the PEV as a response option in Citizenship/Residency Requirements section. The PEV update will be released in the eCAF training environment in the coming weeks to enable providers to become familiar with the change, prior to the update going live on 1 February 2024.
The VSL Manual for Providers and the VSL Student Information Booklet have also been updated.
The Bill and the Explanatory Memorandum can be viewed on the Parliament of Australia website at Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Australia’s Engagement in the Pacific) Bill 2023 – Parliament of Australia (aph.gov.au).
In due course a compilation of the updated VET Student Loans Act 2016 will be available on the Federal Register of Legislation.
Please direct any questions about the eligibility of PEV holders for VSL to VETStudentLoans@dewr.gov.au.
Data quality improvement focus
The quality of data reported into and managed within our systems is a key part of our collective work across the VSL program. We are particularly keen to ensure data is appropriately reported and processed ahead of our transition to our new payments system, VSL Connect.
As we investigate our systems, we have identified reported loans that require attention within our systems and where we require your assistance to determine next steps.
These include:
- loans where a duplicate appears to have been reported after the initial loan was rejected, or
- loans where recoveries have been processed, but the record may in fact be a valid loan.
We will be contacting you over the coming months as we identify and analyse these matters to ensure we are processing these loan records appropriately. We will also be contacting you where your ongoing reporting of student data is deficient and does not meet the program reporting requirements.
We have noted that a significant number of providers are reporting data late, which means there are large amounts of VSL payments that you have not received. Sometimes these records are being reported years late. This impacts timely VSL payments for training you’ve delivered. It also impacts your students as they don’t have visibility of their loan debts at the time of training.
New non-payment reasons on the Payment Provider Report in HITS
The Provider Payment Report, accessible via the reports section in HITS, displays records with census dates from a previous month. This report provides a breakdown enabling you to identify eligible payment data and other records assigned with non-payment reasons.
We are writing to advise that starting from the December 2023 pay run, we are introducing two new non-payment reasons that may appear on your report. An explanation of these non-payment reasons follows.
Payment reversed due to the census date changing to a future date
Payments to providers are triggered when a record's census date passes, and the loan liability is transferred to a student's ATO account.
However, making an adjustment in TCSI to a previously paid unit by amending the census date into the future may lead to a recovery of the corresponding payment from your institution. For example, you may make an adjustment when a student is not sufficiently progressing in the course. When the payment is recovered from your institution the loan liability is also removed from the student's ATO record.
Where this occurs, the Payment Provider Report can be used to find those units which have been attributed with this non-payment reason. The system will automatically reassess payment eligibility upon the updated census date passing. In some circumstances, a new eCAF may be required.
Incomplete record not all mandatory information fields reported
For the department to transfer loan data to the ATO, data for a specific set of elements is required before TCSI can send these loans to the ATO. You should refer to the Transfer of loan data to ATO section at Loan processing for HECS HELP, FEE HELP and VSL loans for assistance when entering student loan data into TCSI.
If mandatory data is still missing by the time pay run data is extracted for that payment period, that unit cannot be paid and is assigned with Incomplete record not all mandatory information fields reported on the payment report.
Please ensure all mandatory data is entered against each unit to allow payments to be made without delays. For further information regarding reporting in TCSI, please see the latest VSL reporting requirements at VET Student Loans 2024 | TCSI Support.
Re-crediting a VET Student Loan
It is at your discretion to re-credit a students' VET Student Loan, outside of prescribed avenues such as ‘special circumstances’. If you decide to re-credit a student's loan, that amount will be recovered by the department. To re-credit the student you will need to report this in TCSI.
You will need to update the following value in the unit enrolment record for the student with the corresponding code:
- E446 Remission reason code: If the student was not a genuine student this code should be ‘16’. (amended in VSL Provider Newsletter – February 2024 to ‘1’)
Once you have reported this in TCSI, the revised data will be sent to the ATO and they will adjust the student’s tax record to reflect the remission of the student’s debt. Recovery of this amount will occur at the next payment cycle.
Note, this is a discretionary activity. This information is provided to assist you, should you decide to re-credit a student’s Unit of Study. You are still required to meet your obligations regarding reporting and re-crediting considerations under ‘special circumstances’ and cancellations, including if you consider the student is not genuine.
Student who withdraw/defer and recommence study
You should generate a progression for students to submit when they withdraw/defer from their course of study. The student should insert the date according to the provider notice of withdrawal/deferral into the Progression Form. The submission of the progression advises us that a student wishes to stop accessing their VET Student Loan.
You should also generate a progression for students to submit as soon as they recommence their course of study. The student should insert the date that they recommenced their study in the Progression Form. The submission of the progression advises us that a student wishes to re-access their VET Student Loan.
Note: Any census days between the date of deferral and date of resumption will not be paid.
Data breach notifications
You must notify the department, within one business day, if you suspect that personal information you (or your subcontractors) hold in connection with the VSL program may have been subject to a data breach.
Data breaches include unauthorised access or unauthorised disclosure, or personal information having been lost in circumstances where the loss is likely to result in personal information being subject to unauthorised access or unauthorised disclosure.
You must ensure that, in respect of any data breach, you:
- promptly update the department in respect of any developments about the data breach
- promptly provide all information and assistance requested by the department in relation to the data breach and
- comply with any reasonable direction of the department in relation to the management of that data breach.
You can notify the department by emailing vetstudentloans@dewr.gov.au.
A new condition of approval requiring VSL providers to report all suspected data breaches to the department will be imposed on all providers with effect from 1 January 2024.
A Conditions of Approval Notice detailing this new condition, together with other conditions and your provider fee limit will be uploaded to HITS in the coming weeks.
Compliance – Detection strategies
As outlined in the department’s VSL Compliance Strategy, we undertake a rolling program of compliance audits and program monitoring activities. These address emerging risks, issues and concerning trends in the VSL program. VSL approved provider compliance audits are conducted in accordance with section 45 of the VSL Act. The purpose of audits is to assess whether you are complying with the VSL Act and whether students enrolled with you are genuine students. You may be selected for audit randomly or on a risk-based approach.
Key findings
The 2022–23 VSL compliance audit program findings indicate various incidents of non-compliance similar to those found under the 2021–22 audit program and reported in the VSL provider Newsletter - August 2022. Findings include non-compliance with the following sections of the VET Student Loans Act 2016 (The Act) and the VET Student Loans Rules 2016 (The Rules):
- Citizenship and Residency - assessment and retention of documents as required under the Act.
- Academic Suitability - assessment and retention of documents as required under the Act.
- Kinds of courses - courses must meet the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) course packaging rules.
- Provider suitability requirements - providers must meet suitability requirements under Division 3 of the Rules.
- Certain processes and procedures - providers must have certain processes and procedures, and act in accordance with them.
- Providers must not use broker or agents - a provider must not abdicate its responsibilities for enrolling students to a third party as required under the Act.
- Third Party arrangements - seeking approval where required and registering third party arrangements in HITS.
- Retaining information and documents - retention of documents as required under the Act.
- Data reporting - timely, accurate and complete data reporting as required under the Act.
- Offering certain inducements - providers must not offer benefits or inducements to students to apply for a VET student loan as required under the Act.
- Genuine Students - monitoring of disengaged students and cancelling enrolment prior to a census date where appropriate.
- General requirements - delivery of high-quality training, achieving the best outcomes for students, and having a record of satisfactory conduct in relation to previous vocational education and training.
- Fit and proper person requirements - the secretary may have regard to you and your key personnel and meeting sufficient standards of integrity, honesty and good character.
- Key personnel and advisers - key personnel and advisers must have the experience and expertise necessary to perform their duties and responsibilities.
- VSL Fee Notices and Commonwealth Assistance Notices (CANs) - the retention of evidence and timely issuance as required under the Rules.
- Marketing of courses and publishing requirements - compliance with social media marketing and publishing requirements on provider websites and social media accounts.
We note that most of the providers audited during this period were found to be highly pro-active in the approach to the audits and prompt and willing to rectify any non-compliance findings. We appreciate those providers willingness to participate, rectify and ensure their compliance with the VSL program.
We encourage you to self-audit, as well as self-report any non-compliance findings, and will consider the self-reporting of potential breaches in providers when determining compliance actions. Providers who identify a potential VSL compliance breach are strongly encouraged to self-report the issue to VETcompliance@dewr.gov.au.
Students can continue to apply for the Tertiary Access Payment
The Tertiary Access Payment (TAP) is a one-off payment of up to $5,000 available to school-leavers from regional or remote areas to assist with the cost of relocating for tertiary education (Certificate IV and above).
Students can get the TAP at the same time as other student payments, such as Youth Allowance, ABSTUDY or the Relocation Scholarship.
You are encouraged to promote the TAP Program to students from regional and remote Australia who have relocated or are interested in relocating for tertiary study in 2023. Applications for 2023 remain open until 31 December 2023.
You may also consider including advice on the TAP for prospective 2024 students. Applications for 2024 will open on 1 January 2024.
For more information on eligibility criteria and how to apply, students can visit the Services Australia website at Tertiary Access Payment - Services Australia.
VET FEE-HELP Student Redress Measures close 31 December 2023
With the VET FEE-HELP (VFH) Student Redress Measures coming to an end on 31 December 2023, we expect some VFH students may approach you seeking assistance with disputes about their VFH loan debts and re-crediting. If you need any assistance with how to assist students or require guidance on applying the VFH legislation for these matters, please contact VETStudentLoans@dewr.gov.au.
Subscribing to the VSL Provider Newsletter
The VSL Provider Newsletter is how we let you know about program updates and reminders about the program administrative requirements. Let your colleagues know they can subscribe to the newsletter at VET Student Loans – subscribe.