Latest news with #SchoolSavingBonus
The Age
29-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
Parents ‘stockpiling' uniforms ahead of changes to school bonus program
More than $80 million of the School Saving Bonus remains unspent despite a last-minute rush by families to redeem vouchers before restrictions are placed on what can be bought. Designed to ease the cost-of-living burden, the $275 million program gave families $400 for each child at a government school to be spent on uniforms, textbooks and school activities such as camps and excursions. From Tuesday families will no longer be able to spend the money on uniforms and textbooks. The $84 million in unallocated funds is to be transferred to families' school activities accounts. However, confusion about when the program's funds would expire led to a last-minute rush on uniform stores, with many parents thinking it was a 'use it or lose it' scheme that expired at the end of the month. Parent Carly Brown-McErlain said while she found the process of accessing the funds straightforward, there was uncertainty among parents at her school about what would happen to the money they hadn't spent. 'It was framed that we would lose it as of June 30, so everybody started to spend it,' she said. 'It felt like, use it or lose it.' Brown-McErlain's daughter Ayda is in year 1 at the local primary school. Brown-McErlain said that because her daughter's uniforms were largely secondhand, she decided to allocate $300 of her bonus to uniforms, including buying the school beanie and raincoat. A mothers and children fitness instructor, Brown-McErlain said that with her four-year-old son, Albie, starting at the same school in 2027, the uniforms would set her family up well as her son would inherit his sister's uniforms. According to Education Department figures, spending on uniforms has been the most popular way to allocate the funds, parents having spent $81.3 million on uniforms since November.
Sydney Morning Herald
29-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Parents ‘stockpiling' uniforms ahead of changes to school bonus program
More than $80 million of the School Saving Bonus remains unspent despite a last-minute rush by families to redeem vouchers before restrictions are placed on what can be bought. Designed to ease the cost-of-living burden, the $275 million program gave families $400 for each child at a government school to be spent on uniforms, textbooks and school activities such as camps and excursions. From Tuesday families will no longer be able to spend the money on uniforms and textbooks. The $84 million in unallocated funds is to be transferred to families' school activities accounts. However, confusion about when the program's funds would expire led to a last-minute rush on uniform stores, with many parents thinking it was a 'use it or lose it' scheme that expired at the end of the month. Parent Carly Brown-McErlain said while she found the process of accessing the funds straightforward, there was uncertainty among parents at her school about what would happen to the money they hadn't spent. 'It was framed that we would lose it as of June 30, so everybody started to spend it,' she said. 'It felt like, use it or lose it.' Brown-McErlain's daughter Ayda is in year 1 at the local primary school. Brown-McErlain said that because her daughter's uniforms were largely secondhand, she decided to allocate $300 of her bonus to uniforms, including buying the school beanie and raincoat. A mothers and children fitness instructor, Brown-McErlain said that with her four-year-old son, Albie, starting at the same school in 2027, the uniforms would set her family up well as her son would inherit his sister's uniforms. According to Education Department figures, spending on uniforms has been the most popular way to allocate the funds, parents having spent $81.3 million on uniforms since November.
Sydney Morning Herald
20-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Victorians react to the 2025 state budget
The budget has $162 million for bus services, including new connections in Thornhill Park, Mt Atkinson and Cairnlea in the west. However, it doesn't go far enough for Santaram, who wants a system-wide overhaul with 10-15-minute frequencies. 'There's no equitable access to public transport,' he said. 'If you go to the outer suburbs, there are people walking up to five kilometres just to catch a bus. They just end up using their car.' Santaram is also frustrated at the government's continual support for the Suburban Rail Loop, the state's most expensive infrastructure project, which will serve the eastern suburbs long before the western suburbs are connected. 'Residents are feeling totally ignored and neglected – all the taxes they are paying, stamp duty and so on, they're all being spent on suburban rail,' he said. There is also disappointment that the electrification of train lines to Melton and Tarneit is once again missing from the budget. However, the state government says the $4 billion Sunshine station upgrade will eventually lead to the Melton upgrade. Extra peak services on the Werribee line would be welcome, he said, but it wouldn't make a huge difference, with car parks and trains already full from early morning. The family Fitzroy mother of two Hanh Cao says Tuesday's state budget is a mixed bag for her and her two sons, Michael and Francis. As a single mother in rented housing, Cao said rent was the biggest financial issue in her household and there was not much in the budget to help out there. She had not yet claimed this year's $400 School Saving Bonus, with language barriers and a lack of social support making it hard for the Vietnamese migrant to claim government entitlements and benefits. But a clear standout in Tuesday's budget was the boost to the government's camps, sports and excursions fund, which will provide $264 a year for Cao's son Michael for the rest of his primary schooling and $400 a year for son Francis when he starts high school next year. The extra 65,000 'get active kids vouchers', available next year and worth $200 each, will also go down well with the boys, Cao said. She also likes the sound of the free maths camps, funded in the coming years as part of a $37 million boost to maths and education. 'They would love it,' she said. The cancer survivor Melissa Le Mesurier knows the ins and outs of Victoria's health system. Her 28-year-old son has been receiving treatment for cystic fibrosis from the state's public hospitals since he was a baby. And in 2017, Le Mesurier was diagnosed with bladder cancer and underwent 12-months of treatment at a private hospital. The 62-year-old now receives annual checks to ensure she's cancer-free. Le Mesurier, who is a patient advocate with a number of not-for-profit health organisations, welcomed the additional $11.1 billion in funding for the state's public health system. She's particularly excited about the opening of Footscray Hospital, which is not too far from her home in Essendon in Melbourne's north. She also applauded the expansion of the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department, which is set to handle more than 600,000 calls every year by 2028. She used the service last year after reacting adversely to an antibiotic and found it very reassuring. But Le Mesurier would have liked more funding for health prevention and cancer research. She also has mixed feelings about the expansion of the community pharmacy program, which will allow pharmacists to provide treatments for allergies, nausea and high blood pressure without the need for a doctor's prescription. 'I know some patients appreciate the convenience, but if I had gone to the chemist repeatedly when I had bladder cancer it could have been mistaken for UTIs,' she said. 'I think there is a danger.' The small business owner Nigel Davies remembers the 1990s recession and thinks Victoria is headed for another one. Davies is the managing director of Lonergan & Raven, Melbourne's oldest independently owned funeral home. He and his wife are also involved in an education business, which employs 18 casuals. He accused the government of 'increasing taxes on everything that moves. And that's going to hit employment'. Davies said many of his suppliers – for everything from chemicals to stationery to latex gloves – were no longer operating in Victoria or had planned to move their factories or depots out of the state. 'It's just cheaper to operate interstate,' he said. 'I can see the writing on the wall. Tough decisions are going to be forced at some point.' The home owners For someone with a 'huge pile of house debt', Brunswick home owner Rachel Williamson said Tuesday's Reserve Bank interest rate cut was a relief. The 39-year-old and her partner Alexander Liddington-Cox, who are sole traders working in the media, bought in 2022. They said it took them a long time to save, and were only able to buy with the support of their parents and through forced savings due to the pandemic. The Reserve Bank announced a drop to interest rates on Tuesday, from 4.1 per cent to 3.85 per cent, amounting to $100 a month off the average $600,000 mortgage. 'This is the second interest rate cut we have ever experienced, it's quite a nice feeling, actually.' But Williamson said she was disappointed in the budget's allocation to social housing. 'People without homes are in real crisis right now,' she said. 'It's a real hidden problem that isn't going to be hiding for much longer.' She said the temporary land transfer duty concession for off-the plan properties was likely a good move for helping people get into the market, but only 'if they are well built'.
The Age
20-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Victorians react to the 2025 state budget
The budget has $162 million for bus services, including new connections in Thornhill Park, Mt Atkinson and Cairnlea in the west. However, it doesn't go far enough for Santaram, who wants a system-wide overhaul with 10-15-minute frequencies. 'There's no equitable access to public transport,' he said. 'If you go to the outer suburbs, there are people walking up to five kilometres just to catch a bus. They just end up using their car.' Santaram is also frustrated at the government's continual support for the Suburban Rail Loop, the state's most expensive infrastructure project, which will serve the eastern suburbs long before the western suburbs are connected. 'Residents are feeling totally ignored and neglected – all the taxes they are paying, stamp duty and so on, they're all being spent on suburban rail,' he said. There is also disappointment that the electrification of train lines to Melton and Tarneit is once again missing from the budget. However, the state government says the $4 billion Sunshine station upgrade will eventually lead to the Melton upgrade. Extra peak services on the Werribee line would be welcome, he said, but it wouldn't make a huge difference, with car parks and trains already full from early morning. The family Fitzroy mother of two Hanh Cao says Tuesday's state budget is a mixed bag for her and her two sons, Michael and Francis. As a single mother in rented housing, Cao said rent was the biggest financial issue in her household and there was not much in the budget to help out there. She had not yet claimed this year's $400 School Saving Bonus, with language barriers and a lack of social support making it hard for the Vietnamese migrant to claim government entitlements and benefits. But a clear standout in Tuesday's budget was the boost to the government's camps, sports and excursions fund, which will provide $264 a year for Cao's son Michael for the rest of his primary schooling and $400 a year for son Francis when he starts high school next year. The extra 65,000 'get active kids vouchers', available next year and worth $200 each, will also go down well with the boys, Cao said. She also likes the sound of the free maths camps, funded in the coming years as part of a $37 million boost to maths and education. 'They would love it,' she said. The cancer survivor Melissa Le Mesurier knows the ins and outs of Victoria's health system. Her 28-year-old son has been receiving treatment for cystic fibrosis from the state's public hospitals since he was a baby. And in 2017, Le Mesurier was diagnosed with bladder cancer and underwent 12-months of treatment at a private hospital. The 62-year-old now receives annual checks to ensure she's cancer-free. Le Mesurier, who is a patient advocate with a number of not-for-profit health organisations, welcomed the additional $11.1 billion in funding for the state's public health system. She's particularly excited about the opening of Footscray Hospital, which is not too far from her home in Essendon in Melbourne's north. She also applauded the expansion of the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department, which is set to handle more than 600,000 calls every year by 2028. She used the service last year after reacting adversely to an antibiotic and found it very reassuring. But Le Mesurier would have liked more funding for health prevention and cancer research. She also has mixed feelings about the expansion of the community pharmacy program, which will allow pharmacists to provide treatments for allergies, nausea and high blood pressure without the need for a doctor's prescription. 'I know some patients appreciate the convenience, but if I had gone to the chemist repeatedly when I had bladder cancer it could have been mistaken for UTIs,' she said. 'I think there is a danger.' The small business owner Nigel Davies remembers the 1990s recession and thinks Victoria is headed for another one. Davies is the managing director of Lonergan & Raven, Melbourne's oldest independently owned funeral home. He and his wife are also involved in an education business, which employs 18 casuals. He accused the government of 'increasing taxes on everything that moves. And that's going to hit employment'. Davies said many of his suppliers – for everything from chemicals to stationery to latex gloves – were no longer operating in Victoria or had planned to move their factories or depots out of the state. 'It's just cheaper to operate interstate,' he said. 'I can see the writing on the wall. Tough decisions are going to be forced at some point.' The home owners For someone with a 'huge pile of house debt', Brunswick home owner Rachel Williamson said Tuesday's Reserve Bank interest rate cut was a relief. The 39-year-old and her partner Alexander Liddington-Cox, who are sole traders working in the media, bought in 2022. They said it took them a long time to save, and were only able to buy with the support of their parents and through forced savings due to the pandemic. The Reserve Bank announced a drop to interest rates on Tuesday, from 4.1 per cent to 3.85 per cent, amounting to $100 a month off the average $600,000 mortgage. 'This is the second interest rate cut we have ever experienced, it's quite a nice feeling, actually.' But Williamson said she was disappointed in the budget's allocation to social housing. 'People without homes are in real crisis right now,' she said. 'It's a real hidden problem that isn't going to be hiding for much longer.' She said the temporary land transfer duty concession for off-the plan properties was likely a good move for helping people get into the market, but only 'if they are well built'.
The Age
20-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
$400 student bonus cut, but these schools won sought-after upgrades
Families will have to do without the universally available $400 School Saving Bonus as the government takes a more targeted approach to cost-of-living relief. With more than a third of the $282 million allocated to the scheme this year still unspent, the government will instead put $318 million over the next four years towards free public transport for under 18s, in a move that will save families $755 on the annual cost of a student transport pass. The direct support effort, outlined in Tuesday's state budget, will shift to disadvantaged school families. Healthcare- or concession-card holding parents will be entitled to $400 per secondary student and $256 per primary-aged child next year to pay for camps, sports and excursions, in a move set to cost $152 million over the next four years. Families with children at school have borne the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis, with education costs far outstripping every other area of household spending in the key CPI inflation measure since 2021, with schooling and associated costs soaring by 25 per in those four years. There will be an extra 65,000 'get active kids vouchers' made available at a cost of $15 million, giving eligible families $200 to cover the price of sports registrations, memberships, clothing or equipment. Other big-spending education budget items include $320 million to continue the disability inclusion program in government schools and $33 million next financial year for transport to specialist government schools, including new routes. Students from non-English-speaking households will benefit from $56 million to be spent in the next two years, including more children in the English as a Second Language program.
