‘It's not a voucher': This is how Queensland's $100 back-to-school bonus will work
Every Queensland primary school student will get $100 wiped off their back-to-school costs next year, but that won't even cover the cost of pencils and books.
The LNP government's Back to School Boost will give $100 to every state, Catholic and independent primary school student from January 1, and it will not be means tested.
The payments will cost the government $188.6 million over four years, and can be spent on books, stationery, devices, excursions, uniforms, and extracurricular activities, including sports and arts.
Despite it being described in a government press release on Tuesday as a '$100 voucher', Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek clarified on Wednesday that it was not a voucher.
'It's going to go to school accounts, then the parents can use it as a credit towards things they have costs for – so we're not giving people vouchers,' he said.
'Because, of course, what will always happen is, we have people saying 'cash them in'. We want to make sure this is applied to the costs of going to school.'
On Facebook, parents said they feared schools would not pass the savings on.
It was also not immediately clear exactly how the rebates would work, as the official book list tends to be ordered via an external office supplies company, or parents buy similar items from stores such as Officeworks or Big W.
Excursions are billed via schools, but uniforms are often sold through P&Cs, which have separate bank accounts.
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