I've been on Austudy for 2 months, having transferred from JSK. At the time I started studying, I also started working as a sole trader. I lodged the relevant paperwork. I had an income bank of $1000 that was transferred over from JSK. According to my calculations, my fortnightly assessable income from the self-employment, after all deductions, was around $105 above the income threshold for Austudy. So I expected the income bank to slowly deplete.
I called the student payments line today to check, as I haven't actually had any messages from Centrelink confirming they've received and processed the business paperwork, and I noticed on the app that my income bank has actually climbed to $3300! So my assumption was, they were yet to process the business paperwork.
To my surprise, the lady said the sole trader info had been fully coded. I told her that according to my loose calculations, my income bank should be down to around $400 by now. Not $3300. She told me assessable income from sole traders is worked out differently to regular paid work. I said I know that, it's averaged out over 3 months and deductions are included, to work out the assessable fortnightly income. She assured me everything was fine and I had nothing to worry about. I also asked her if I'm ever likely to receive messages about my sole trader business - such as a confirmation it's been processed, or an email requesting a new 3 month profit and loss statement. She said she didn't know any of this, as she only handled student payments.
I'm worried what she told me is wrong. My numbers can't be that off. Anyone been in this sort of situation? Wondering what I should do. I'm not sure which phone number I can call apart from the student line, and the problem being, I'm not sure operators on that line actually know much about the sole trader stuff. Does anyone know if there's a dedicated number for sole trader income matters? I can't call the JSK line because I'm no longer on that payment. I'm just not sure how I can get iron clad confirmation that the details are correct and the assessable income has been done right and the income bank figure is accurate. I can't for the life of me work out how it is, but I could be dead wrong.