Bill
VET Student Payment Arrangements (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2020
passed, as at 2021-03-01. Education, Skills and Employment portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Education, Skills and Employment
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2020-11-12
- second reading — 2020-11-12
- second reading — 2020-12-03
- second reading — 2020-12-03
- third reading — 2020-12-03
- introduced — 2020-12-07
- second reading — 2021-02-18
- second reading — 2021-02-18
- second reading — 2021-02-18
- third reading — 2021-02-18
- passed — 2021-02-18
- royal assent — 2021-03-01
Divisions
No divisions recorded. Most questions are decided on the voices; this does not establish that a bill was unopposed.
Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2020-11-12.
The bill would help the Commonwealth resolve leftover matters from the closed VET FEE-HELP scheme and improve how the VET Student Loans program is run.
It would phase out payments to VET providers for old student data, let the Commonwealth recover debts by offsetting them against other payments, and revoke provider approvals while keeping legal powers to finalise the scheme.
The bill would also let the Secretary refuse to pay a provider for a student loan in the same situations where the student's HELP balance can be re-credited, without paying first.
- Phase out the Commonwealth's obligation to pay VFH assistance to providers for old student data and stop providers chasing students for those unpaid amounts.
- Allow the Commonwealth to set off debts owed by providers under the VFH scheme against FEE-HELP or VET student loan payments.
- Revoke the approval of remaining VET providers while keeping HESA and related instruments active for resolving outstanding matters.
- Add new circumstances where the Secretary does not have to pay a VET student loan amount to a provider, matching the re-crediting rules.
- Automatically revoke a course provider's approval if it stops being a registered training organisation.
The Commonwealth, VET providers, and students who used the former VET FEE-HELP scheme or the VET Student Loans program.
Sources
em
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