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Australian parents will not receive Schoolkids Bonus payments after July, regardless of who wins the federal election.

The government has been paying eligible parents up to $856 per child per year to help with education costs. The last payment will be made in July, after parliament backed the government’s plan to phase out the bonus.

Labor has today announced it will not bring them back if it wins the July 2 election, reports 9 News.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen confirmed the new position today, but leader Bill Shorten skirted around the issue when quizzed on Darwin radio.

“I’m going to give your answer the detail it deserves,” he said, before talking about changes to the age-pension assets test that Labor won’t reverse either.

Treasurer Scott Morrison was dismissive of the announcement.

“It’s not a question of whether there’s a black hole when it comes to Labor’s unfunded spending, it’s just a question of how big it is,” he said.

The Labor website had been hosting an online petition calling for the Schoolkids Bonus to be restored.

“Today it’s vanished. It’s no longer there,” Mr Morrison said.

Will this have a big impact on your family?

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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

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  • 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!

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  • It is sad that neither party are much interested.

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  • 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.

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  • 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!

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

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  • 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.

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  • Disappointing to read that both parties are scrapping this program.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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??????


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

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

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  • 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.

    Reply

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