SA-HELP

A SA-HELP loan allows students to borrow from the Commonwealth to cover some or all of their Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF).

Students who receive a SA-HELP loan will have part or their entire SSAF paid to the University by the Commonwealth and a SA-HELP debt recorded for them with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Eligibility

To be eligible for SA-HELP, you must:

  • be an Australian citizen OR a permanent humanitarian visa holder OR an eligible New Zealand Special Category Visa holder and will undertake at least some of your program of study in Australia,
  • complete and submit a Request for SA-HELP Assistance form (see the applying section below) for each program you are enrolled in by the census date, and
  • provide your Tax File Number or a Certificate of application for a tax file number before the due date.

Holders of permanent visas, and New Zealand Citizens, who do not meet the above eligibility criteria, are not eligible for SA-HELP, and must pay their SSAF to the University by the invoice due date.

SA-HELP eligible students may pay their SSAF in one of the following ways:

  • pay the full SSAF to the University by the invoice due date
  • receive a SA-HELP loan for the full SSAF
  • pay some of the SSAF to the University by the invoice due date and receive a SA-HELP loan for the remainder of the SSAF.

Applying

To apply for SA-HELP, eligible students must complete a Request for SA-HELP assistance form. To submit a Request for SA-HELP assistance form log into Access Adelaide* and:

  1. Select the 'My Finances' Menu
  2. Select 'Payment Category'
  3. Select the 'Apply for SA-HELP' button
  4. Follow the prompts, enter your TFN where required, and answer all questions on the form
  5. Select 'Submit Form'

*Eligible New Zealand Special Category Visa holders will need to provide evidence of their eligibility in person at Ask Adelaide, Hub Central, by the due date as printed on their SSAF invoice, otherwise their application will not be valid.

Please note that SA-HELP is a separate application from HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP. To defer your SSAF to SA-HELP you must apply for SA-HELP in Access Adelaide.

A student is only required to apply for SA-HELP once for each program of study. If a student is admitted to a new program of study and wants to defer the SSAF to SA-HELP the Request for SA-HELP assistance form must be completed.

Repayment of SA-HELP loan

There is no capacity under the Higher Education Support Act 2003 for the provider to remit a SA-HELP debt incurred by a student, therefore any SA-HELP debt at the due date will remain.

Within 28 days of the census date, the University will send you a Commonwealth Assistance Notice (CAN) showing the amount of SSAF deferred to a SA-HELP loan.

Repayment of a SA-HELP debt is compulsory when your taxable income is above the minimum repayment threshold set by the Australian Government - refer to Repayment of HELP debt.