Students tie knot to boost youth allowance

| News.com.au

MOST couples marry for love, but two university students are not ashamed to say they did it for money - an extra $60 a week.

University of Adelaide undergraduates Fletcher O'Leary, 21, and Lavinia Emmett-Grey, 23, yesterday legally married in protest over Youth Allowance.

To the strains of the Star Wars' Imperial Death March, the couple tied the knot before 200 people on the university's Barr Smith Lawns.

Mr O'Leary now will be able to qualify as an "independent" under Youth Allowance requirements, raising his potential student income support from $248 to $377 a fortnight - just more than $60 more a week.

Centrelink currently does not regard students as independent until they are 25. This is unless they can prove they earned $19,000 in 18 months; their parents aren't able to "exercise their responsibilities" or living with them will cause psychological or physical harm; if they have a child, or are married.

In changes to Youth Allowance introduced today, the age of independence will be reduced to 22 over the next four years.

Mr O'Leary, also is the university's union president said: "it was simply not good enough".

"At 18, you can enlist in the army, pay tax as an adult and be tried as an adult, yet you lose out when it comes to Centrelink," he said. "Young people get all the responsibilities without the support."

Ms Emmett-Grey, the National Union of Students' state welfare officer, said two-thirds of undergraduates at the University of Adelaide were less than 22.

"The difference between the independent and dependent rate of student income support is over $100 per fortnight," she said. "It's disappointing someone on unemployment benefit gets more from the Government than any student."

Education Minister Julia Gillard said by raising the parental income test, the Government had made it easier for students who needed help most to qualify.

"Under the previous system, nearly one in five students living at home and claiming Independent Youth Allowance came from families earning above $150,000 and one in 10 were from families earning above $200,000," she said.

"This was happening while students who genuinely needed help were not getting it . . . The new parental income threshold will allow parents with two students studying away from home to earn more than $140,000 before their kids' allowance is cut."

Before and after

Before his wedding Fletcher O'Leary was classified as:

Single with no children, 18 years and over and living at home which gave him $248.10 a fortnight.

Now that he is married he is seen as:

18 years and over and partnered with no children which qualifies him for $377 a fortnight. His new wife, Lavinia, was living as an independent before their wedding and already was receiving the $377 payment. This will not change now that they are married.