lol i know that the government takes more away from families and the kids especially. My hubby works and pays tax. They aren’t going to let you claim anything for schooling on tax. I wear all schooling costs….fine, that’s my child, but my school is FIGHTING for CHAIRS, begging parents to take washing home because the school can’t deal with it. In comparison, my child’s former school had every class with air-con, every class had a fridge and luxuries like paper! That school was in a mining town so i don’t understand why 2 schools with the same amount of students, are both sitting at extreme opposites on the funding scale APPARENTLY. Stop taking money from our kids, our future! Put this money BACK into the schools to give our kids a decent education.

I don’t know a great lot about it. We only got it for the first time this year and we certainly didn’t get anywhere near the max amount per child as mentioned in the article. It was unexpected but appreciated all the same.

There seem to be a lot of changes on the political horizon.

I thought this finished last year as I didn’t get the school bonus for my kids… it didn’t bother me as it makes me to save better for schooling…..Australia needs to pay off the debt first before helping ppl with school bonus!

It is sad that neither party are much interested.

I didn’t receive this payment anyway so I won’t miss it. I’m more interested in the Government investing in decent, quality education for every child than providing handouts that don’t necessary meet the requirement they’re for.

I think it would make more sense for the government to provide those payments directly to our schools. That way, all parents can benefit from cost savings for some of their child’s education. Simplistic I know, but I’m sure a group of MOMs could make that idea work!

This will have a huge impact on our and many more families !

Won’t have any impact on my family – I never received any of these types of bonuses ever in the life of my four kids – but still managed to educate them up to and beyond University standard with not a hand-out in sight.

Disappointing to read that both parties are scrapping this program.

As a single parent of 5 kids 4 going to school its going to be tough because each year needs different things then they need a uniform and the back to school money helps with things like that but without it a lot of families are going to be struggling to get all that for the child especially families with more than two kids and high school especially because u have to pay for the subjects your child does and then what they need for that class so yea its going to be hard maybe they should reconsider or even halve what the parents get already for school bonus as long as we have a bit of help I’m sure it would be appreciated.

Most families will be struggling now as I know mine will as I will have 3 in high school next year and buying their text books n uniforms are way too expensive.Dont know how I’m going to cope as I’m only on a disability pension.But we’ll find a way to manage I hope.

both my husband and i are unemployed we rely on this money to buy new school clothes, socks, shoes (both my boys go through a pare each term), school supplies and school fees. I dont know how we are going to send our kids to school next year especially if they have outgrown their uniforms. my youngest started high school this year and it cost me $550 just for summer uniforms i still have to get him some winter uniforms. how are we suppose to pay for all of this??????

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  • • mom93821 replied
    • 19 Jun 2016 , 6:49 am

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  Maybe try second hand uniform shops – schools often run these and many of the uniforms are in excellent condition.

This is a shame – we were never eligible, but I honk it helped a lot of families.

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  • • BellaB replied
    • 26 May 2016 , 11:26 pm

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  I meant “think”.

This a vital payment for a lot of families. Especially those with children just starting primary or secondary school, as the outlays are huge when starting school. It needs to continue.

What is this bonus? When my kids went to school years ago we got zilch and did not expect anything either. You were very limited to what you could claim on tax as well . Just as a point of interest we never got a housing grant or any baby bonuses either. We paid our own way all the way.

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  • • mom101628 replied
    • 27 May 2016 , 1:50 pm

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  Me too.

Like many Australians with children in primary & high school and on 1 income my husband has just been made redundant today. I have relied on this bonus to help cover the extra school costs in the past and this year. I’m very worried because I’m not sure where im going to find the extra money to cover school costs next year I will have one child still in primary and the other starting high school. Who said government school education was free. Not anymore.

I wonder how much it would cost the Govt. if they reverted to allowing parents to claim for books and uniforms on their tax return as they did in the 1950s and 60s. I don’t what the procedure was after that.

Its a shame that it wasnt altered so that perhaps it was a one off payment in the year the child started high school as thats where the expense comes in. Uniforms alone are so expensive.

My daughter is not in school yet so we have never received it, therefore we won’t miss it