1. Student HELP entitlement
calculations Part 1
Welcome to today’s webinar on Student HELP entitlement calculations. My name is Maureen Wood and today I have with me Lorraine Greenwood and Sharon Leigh-Hazell.
The Australian Government limits the amount of assistance a student can access under the various Higher Education Loan Programs (or HELP) programs. To manage these limits, the department monitors students use of their entitlements through the HELP entitlement calculations. Today’s webinar will explain how students entitlements are calculated and what information is available to you as providers and your students.
The student entitlement processes include FEE HELP, VET FEE HELP, OS HELP and Commonwealth Scholarships. Note that SA-HELP is not included in the HELP entitlement calculations as this information is checked at the time the SA-HELP data is submitted.
During the webinar when we use the term FEE HELP we are referring to entitlements used by students through FEE-HELP and VET FEE-HELP, as there is only one entitlement limit for both these programs.
As the deadline for 31 October student submission has now passed and all providers have reported their data for this period we have started the HELP entitlement calculation for this submission period. It is critical to complete this before we transfer student debts to the Australian Taxation office (ATO).
For the purpose of providing accurate information in this session all details in todays training have assumed that the calculation process was completed today 7 November 2013.
Today webinar will be divided into two parts and recorded so that it can be made available on HEIMSHELP, similar to what we have done for our previous webinars.
At the end of each part there will be time to raise questions. Please feel free to submit your questions during the webinar, we will do our best to answer your questions. Similar to our previous webinars, we will have the answers to your questions available on the webpage for this webinar, as soon as possible. We have provided the address to this webpage that supports this webinar on the screen and also on the two question slides. I would recommend that you dot this address.

2. Overview The entitlement process Output Alert Notices
How to download notices
What information is provided
How to manage entitlements
HELP reports
How students monitor entitlements
Today we will explain:
the entitlement process, including how a student’s use of their entitlement is calculated and when these calculations occur
what output alert notices are
how you can download output alert notices from HEIMS Administration
what information is included in the output alert notices
how we can help you monitor your students entitlements
what reports are available in HEIMS Online to help you to monitor HELP debts and payments
how students can track how much they have borrowed using myUniAssist

3. Student entitlement calculations
When is entitlement use calculated
What can delay the process
What is an adjusted debt
What is an invalidated debt
Student entitlement calculations provide vital information to assist you with the monitoring of student HELP entitlements. Calculations are undertaken 4 times a year, directly after each reporting period. These are
31 May
31 August
31 October
31 March
When all unit of study data has been reported for each of these periods the student entitlement calculation process for FEE-HELP and OS-HELP commences. It generally occurs as soon as possible after the submission deadline has passed. As the 31 October student submission (census dates 1 July to 31 August 2013) were not all reported until Tuesday 5 November , the calculations process commenced on Wednesday 6 November and is expected to be finalised by Friday 8 November.
Once this process has been completed output alert notices will be available for your review. We also advise you through our eNews when these processes have been finalised.
The entitlement calculation for Commonwealth scholarships occurs at the time of each submission.
What can delay entitlement calculations
If providers are late in reporting their data this delays the entitlement process, as these calculations cannot proceed until all providers submissions for the period have been reported. You can see that when just a few providers do not submit their data on time this can hold up the process and delay vital information to all providers.
There can also be delays in finalising an entitlement calculation when a student is reported with more than one citizenship status in the period by different providers – e.g. a permanent resident by one provider and an Australian citizen by another. Before we can finalise the process we need to confirm the student’s actual citizenship status with the providers.
There are two key outcomes of the HELP entitlement process – a unit of study may be adjusted or a record will be invalidated.
What is an adjusted FEE HELP debt
Eligible higher education and VET students can only borrow amounts up to the FEE-HELP limit to pay the tuition fees for their units of study. An adjustment to a student’s HELP debt occurs when the student has insufficient FEE-HELP left to cover the full cost of a unit of study i.e. the student’s HELP debt for the unit is adjusted down to the amount of their remaining FEE-HELP balance.
What is an invalidated HELP debt
A FEE‑HELP debt for a unit of study is invalidated when a student has exceeded their FEE‑HELP limit and has no remaining entitlement left to pay any of the tuition fees for the unit.
An OS-HELP debt can also be invalidated if a student has accessed more than 2 OS-HELP loans over their lifetime.
A Commonwealth scholarship record is invalidated if a student has already used all their scholarship entitlements.

4. In what order are units processed?
Different census dates
units with earliest census date
Same census date different providers
first units reported to HEIMS
Multiple units
- same census date
most expensive first
1. Units of study with a census date in the current period
Order of process units of study.
A HELP entitlement calculation processes all units of study in a particular order.
As you know, units of study with census dates in previous reporting periods can be included in your current student submissions. So the first rule of processing is that all the units of study with a census date in the current reporting period are processed first. This is so a student’s entitlement is used on the current units of study first. Late records from an earlier period/s are then considered later in the process.
The order of processing next looks at: [units with different census dates ]
Units reported with the earliest census date for the current period will consume the students FEE-HELP entitlement first.
Multiple units with the same census date
If there are several units reported from one provider with the same census date, the most expensive unit will be consumed first, and then the second most expensive unit until the entitlement limit has been reached.
Units with the same census date reported by different providers
Where units are reported with the same census date by different providers, the first units successfully reported to HEIMS will use the students entitlement before the units reported later in the period.
This is a good reason to report your data as early as possible - it helps to reduce the risk of having your students records invalidated or adjusted.
Units of study with a census date in an earlier period are then processed.
2. Units of study with census dates in an earlier reporting period

5. Output Alerts Notices are issued when students have:
a FEE-HELP balance of 40 % or less
invalidated units of study
adjusted units of study
exceeded OS-HELP & Commonwealth Scholarships entitlements
Following each calculation process, providers will be notified of students who are reaching or have exceeded their entitlement limits in this period. These notifications are called Output Alert Notices.
Notices are issued when a student has:
a FEE-HELP balance of 40 % or less
a unit/s of study invalidated i.e. the student does not have enough FEE-HELP entitlement remaining to pay the fees for the unit
a unit of study adjusted i.e. the student does not sufficient entitlement remaining to cover the full cost of a unit
OS-HELP entitlement has been exceeded
and Commonwealth scholarship entitlements have been exceeded or are nearing the limit
These output alert notices will assist you in monitoring your students’ entitlements. The information in the notices is based on data reported by providers for the related reporting period. While these notices will support you in managing students entitlements we recommend that you also have robust administrative process in place to ensure that students have sufficient entitlements to access FEE HELP. The department cannot make payments to providers for students who have exceeded their entitlement limits.

6. Output Alert Notice How do you find your output alert notices?
After the entitlement process has been completed HEIMS will send an to the provider’s nominated output alert officer, similar to the example provided. This notice is sent to providers when a student has met the conditions we just discussed for each of the output alert reports.
When this is received, the output alert officer can log into HEIMS Administration to review the information provided in the output alert reports.
If you are unsure who your designated output alert officer is, please send us an to confirm. If you would like to assign this role to another staff member/s they will need to complete the HEIMS Access form, which is available on HEIMSHELP. It is also available from the webpage that supports this webinar.

7. HEIMS Administration Log in with your HEPCAT/HEIMS ID
We will now look at HEIMS Administration to step you through how to download your Output Alert Reports. There is a link to this application on the supporting webpage.
To log onto HEIMS Administration simply click “Logon”, enter your logon ID and the password that has been assigned to you – this is the same logon for HEPCAT and HEIMS Online.
If you don’t have a Logon ID you will need to complete our HEIMS Access form and it to us.

8. Output Alert Reports Select SELS to view Output Alert Report
How to Download Output Alert Information, to download your reports simply select SELS which is listed under the Output Alerts menu on the left.

9. Output Alert Reports for FEE-HELP
There are two types of reports that can be downloaded: the Output Alert for Entitlement benchmark report and the Output Alert for invalidated records.
I will download and explain the information provided in each of the reports.

10. Entitlement benchmark alert report
The Output alert for Entitlement benchmark report is downloaded by clicking on the report

11. Click on download data
And then clicking on download data.

12. Save report Click on save to save the report.
As HEIMS does not store previous versions of your reports we recommend that you save your reports after each calculation process.

13. To view the details listed in the report, click on open.
Open report

14. Entitlement output alert report FEE HELP balance of 40% or less
I will now explain the FEE-HELP Entitlement output alert report.
This report lists students whose FEE-HELP balance has dropped below 40% of the total FEE-HELP limit for this approval period - you will note that this period is from 1 January 2005 to the 31 August As we discussed, this approval period looks at all units of study reported in this current reporting period [i.e. census dates from 1 July to 31 August] and then also considers any other units reported in this period with earlier census dates.
This report was generated on 7 November 2013.

15. Entitlement output alert report FEE HELP balance of 40% or less
It provides details of the student, their CHESSN

16. Entitlement output alert report FEE HELP balance of 40% or less
Student ID

17. Entitlement output alert report FEE HELP balance of 40% or less
the students FEE HELP limit

18. Entitlement output alert report FEE HELP balance of 40% or less
details how much FEE-HELP the student has used

19. Entitlement output alert report FEE HELP balance of 40% or less
lists the students remaining FEE-HELP balance

20. Entitlement output alert report FEE HELP balance of 40% or less
and provides the “As at date”. This date is the last possible census date in the calculation period, which in this case is 31 August 2013.
This report helps you to monitor entitlements for students who are at or are about to reach their FEE HELP limit. As we discussed, having a robust process in place to manage students entitlements will reduce your risk of finding some of your fees will not be funded through FEE-HELP.

21. Invalidated/adjusted records report
I will now look at the next report available, the Output Alert for Invalidated records. To download the report, first click on the report to highlight it and then click on download data.
This next report lists those students who have actually exceeded their entitlement limit in this reporting period – i.e. census dates to 31 August 2013.
If no units of study have been invalidated for your organisation, then this report will not be available to download.

22. Save report
Click on save to open the report. Remember to save this report for future reference, as it may be replaced with a later report after the next calculation process.

23. Click on Open to view the records in the report.
Open report

24. Sometimes you may receive this Microsoft generated message on file format – just ignore and continue - click on yes to open report.
Click yes to open

25. FEE HELP assistance invalidated/adjusted output alert report
The invalidated/adjusted report will list all students whose units of study have been invalidated as they have exceeded their limit or their debt amount has been adjusted because the student had insufficient entitlement left.

26. FEE HELP assistance invalidated/adjusted output alert report
Similar to the entitlement benchmark report, details of the students are provided: this includes their CHESSN, Student ID, details of the course and units affected.
These reports are an important resource to help you manage your students’ entitlements.

27. FEE HELP assistance invalidated/adjusted output alert report
The circled part of this report shows details of the unit of study, the census date and the action that occurred in the entitlement calculation process i.e. whether the unit was invalidated or adjusted.

28. FEE HELP assistance invalidated/adjusted output alert report
You can see the amount of the original debt, how much the debt has been adjusted or invalidated, details of any amount paid up front, loan fee amounts and the as at date, which is the last day of the reporting period, being 31 August 2013.

29. FEE HELP assistance invalidated/adjusted output alert report
From the report we can see that student ID TEST99 with unit of study ABC123 for census date 28 July 2013 was invalidated for the amount of $1,500 as at 31 August As mentioned earlier this student has exceeded their FEE HELP limit.

30. FEE HELP assistance invalidated/adjusted output alert report
There are also 4 students whose units of study have been adjusted.

31. FEE HELP assistance invalidated/adjusted output alert report
Student ID TEST20 had an original debt of $5,000 reported but only had $2,000 of their FEE-HELP entitlement left. As the student has insufficient balance to cover the full cost of this unit, the debt amount has been adjusted to $2,000.
Similarly for the remaining 3 students, the reported debts have been reduced to match the students remaining FEE-HELP balance.

32. FEE HELP assistance invalidated/adjusted output alert report
Remainder of fees cannot be paid through FEE-HELP
When the debt amount for a unit is adjusted, the original loan fee reported is also adjusted, as the loan fee now applies to the adjusted debt amount and not the original debt.
In these cases where students FEE HELP balance has been exceeded or their debt adjusted, the Australian Government cannot pay these tuition fees on behalf of the student. It is a matter for the provider to make their own arrangements with the student for payment of these invalidated or adjusted amounts.

33. OS-HELP assistance Invalidated report student has exceeded entitlement
The next output alert report is for OS HELP assistance invalidated loans. To view the details click on the OS-HELP Tab.

34. OS-HELP assistance Invalidated report Student has exceeded entitlement
This report will list those students who have exceeded their OS-HELP entitlement, as discussed students can only receive 2 OS-HELP loans over their lifetime.
You can see from the report that Student ID TEST80 had this OS-HELP loan of $6,000 invalidated.

35. Select Commonwealth Scholarships to view Output Alert Report
Output alert reports are also available for the managing of Commonwealth Scholarship limits. To access these reports simply click on Commonwealth Scholarships.

36. Output Alert Reports for Commonwealth Scholarships
The Commonwealth Scholarships reports are similar to the output alert reports for FEE-HELP.
The invalidated records report lists those students who have actually exceeded their entitlement limits for commonwealth scholarships and a record has been invalidated.
The entitlement benchmark report provides details of those students who have are nearing their Commonwealth Scholarship entitlement limits.
As discussed earlier the process for the calculation of commonwealth scholarship entitlements occurs nightly. Any output alerts generated during the nightly process will be accumulated until the reports are downloaded. Once downloaded, only new alerts will be included for future downloading.

37. Invalidated records report
Same as before to download the Output Alert report for invalidated records, simply click on the report and then click on download data.

38. Commonwealth Scholarship Invalidated output alert report
This report displays a list of students who have had their commonwealth scholarship record invalidated because they have exceeded their entitlements.
It provides the students details, their CHESSN, Student ID, the reason why the record was invalidated, the type of scholarship, the reporting year and period for the record.
You can see from the report that two students have used more then their limit.
[FOR PRESENTERS INFORMATION/REFERENCE ONLY]
Students are entitled to;
8 periods of Ordinary-CECS & Ordinary-CAS
8 periods of Indigenous Commonwealth Education Costs Scholarship & Accommodation (Indigenous-CECS) & (Indigenous-CAS)
4 periods of Associate Degree-CECS & Associate Degree-CAS
2 periods of Indigenous Enabling-CECS and
1 Indigenous Access Scholarship (IAS)

39. Entitlement benchmark report Students with 1 scholarship remaining
I will now download the Output Alert for commonwealth scholarship entitlement benchmark.

40. Commonwealth Scholarship Output Alert for Entitlement benchmark Students with 1 scholarship remaining
This report list students who have only 1 scholarship period remaining it also provides the students details and lists the number of periods remaining for each scholarship type.
For Student ID TEST30 the student has used 7 periods, with only 1 period remaining.
Just like the FEE HELP benchmark report, this information assists you to manage your students Commonwealth scholarship entitlements.

41. Questions?
We will now take a break from the presentation to answer your questions, depending on the number of questions received, we will do our best to answer as many as possible. All questions and responseswill be available today’s webpage. Whilst we are answering your questions please note the address for the webpage.

42. Student HELP entitlement
calculations
Part 2
Pause for 15 seconds for recording of webinar.

43. Entitlement requests Details on students usage and balance for;
FEE-HELP
Commonwealth Scholarships
OS-HELP
Information is requested in two ways
HEIMS Administration
HEIMS Web Services interface
While the benchmark reports and output alert notices we discussed in part 1 are useful tools to help manage student entitlements, you are also able to request information from HEIMS about how much FEE HELP a student has used and what their remaining balance is. This is an entitlement request and these requests also include details of a student’s Commonwealth Scholarships and OS HELP usage. The remaining balance is the amount that the student can still use.
Details on students entitlements can be requested in two ways:
The first way is through HEIMS Administration. It returns information for individual students. To do this:
enter mandatory information for the student (i.e. their CHESSN, Family Name and date of birth)
an entitlement screen will then display the details for the student: i.e. their entitlement limit, balance remaining and their usage up until the “As at date” - this is date of the latest census date in the last entitlement calculation. In this case the date is 31 August 2013
A User Guide on how to request entitlement information is available on HEIMSHELP. A link to the User Guide has been provided on today’s supporting webpage.
The second way is through HEIMS Web Services, this is more appropriate when
student entitlement information can be requested for many students at one time through web services.
This process requires you to build an interface to make web service calls to HEIMS. The Technical Specifications required to set up such a system are available on HEIMSHELP. This is similar to the web services process for the allocating of CHESSNs to students. A link to these specifications is also on today’s supporting webpage.

44. We will now have a look at what other reports are available in HEIMS Online to provide you with further information about your students use of their entitlements and your HELP payments .

45. General Reports
First we’ll look at the reports which can be accessed from the General reports menu.

46. HELP program reports
The general reports for HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP and VET FEE-HELP provide details of students who have had any units of study adjusted throughout the year. These reports are an excellent resource to help you manage your students HELP debts and details on adjusted payments.

47. Report lists adjusted FEE HELP debts
The general report that we will review today is the adjusted FEE HELP Report. This report is available for both higher education and VET providers. It details any students whose FEE HELP debts were adjusted because they did not have enough FEE-HELP balance left to cover the full cost of a unit of study. As we discussed, students cannot access FEE-HELP for any fees that are greater then their limit.
Today we will look at this report in conjunction with the details in the FEE HELP invalidated/adjusted output alert report.
Report lists adjusted FEE HELP debts

48. Adjusted FEE-HELP Report
I have exported the Adjusted FEE HELP report to excel to allow me to demonstrate the link between the output alert report for invalidated and adjusted FEE HELP debts.
Students will be listed in this report if their FEE-HELP debt has been adjusted. This report is available for each half year period.
It will include the key details for the student.
You can see that Student TEST20 enrolled in Course 1234DEF had their unit of study for census date of 15 August 2013 adjusted from $5,000 to $2,000. A difference of $3,000.

49. Adjusted FEE-HELP Report
For this student (TEST20) the report also shows that because the HELP debt has been adjusted to $2,000, the loan fee has also been reduced from $1,250 to $500. The loan fee will now apply to the adjusted debt and not the original debt amount.

50. Invalidated/Adjusted Output Alert Report
Adjusted FEE-HELP Report
Lets have a look at the link between information provided in the output alert report and the Adjusted FEE HELP Report.
If we look at the output alert report for student TEST20, this is showing that this student had a debt amount for a unit of study adjusted as part of the entitlement calculation process that occurred on 7 November.
As you can see from the Adjusted FEE HELP report, similar information is provided, with details on the HELP variance between the original debt and the adjusted debt. This also includes the loan fee variance.
When you receive an output alert notice we recommend that you check your Adjusted FEE HELP report as this will show you exactly how your payments for this unit will be affected and what the student’s actual HELP debt is.

51. Select Full Year Report
There is also a similar link in the output alert report between invalidated records and the FEE HELP /VET FEE-HELP detailed reports in HEIMS Online.
The FEE-HELP Detailed Report lists all units of study and dollar amounts reported for those students who are accessing FEE-HELP or VET FEE-HELP.
As with an adjusted record, when you receive an output alert notice for an invalidated unit of study record we recommend that you check your FEE-HELP detailed report it will help you reconcile your student FEE HELP debts against payments received from the department.
We will now open this report. As the period for the entitlement calculation was for census dates in the second half of 2013, I will select the full year report. .

52. Select FEE-HELP Detailed Report
And then I will select FEE HELP detailed report
If I was a VET provider my report list would show VET FEE-HELP detailed report
Select FEE-HELP Detailed Report

53. FEE-HELP Detailed Report
HEIMS Online will default to the status of records not invalidated or not remitted. With this filter selected the report provides a summary of students who have accessed FEE-HELP or VET FEE-HELP, where their records have not been invalidated or remitted.
To confirm the information provided in the Output Alert report for invalidated records, I will need to change the default option for this report. .

54. FEE-HELP Detailed Report
I will deselect the Not Invalidated and Not Remitted and then select the Invalidated to review the records listed in the output alert report.

55. FEE-HELP Detailed Report
Any students records that have been invalidated will be included in this summary. From the report you can see that one student’s record has been invalidated for EFTSL for a debt amount of $1,500. This information is consistent with the details provided on the Output Alert notice.

56. FEE-HELP Detailed Report
To view the records click on the EFTSL amount
For more details on the student’s invalidated record, I will click on the EFTSL amount that is underlined and shown in blue.

57. FEE-HELP Detailed Report
The details of the invalidated record is provided and you can see that the status on the far right is Invalidated.
Invalidated records will have a status of invalidated

58. FEE-HELP assistance invalidated/adjusted output alert report
FEE-HELP detailed report, with invalidated status selected
We will now have a look at the link between the information provided on the output alert report for invalidated records and the FEE HELP detailed report in HEIMS Online.
The output alert report is advising that a students record has been invalidated in the entitlement process for Student TEST99 for the amount of $1,500 .
As we discussed, we recommend that you check the information provided in HEIMS Online - the FEE-HELP adjusted report and the FEE-HELP detailed report. As this matches the management report that the higher education and VET FEE-HELP payment teams use for their HELP reconciliation processes.

59. How students can monitor their entitlements
MyUniAssist
Details of
HECS-HELP
FEE-HELP including VET FEE HELP
OS-HELP
Commonwealth Scholarships
When the HELP entitlement process has been finalised by the department the details are available for students on the myUniAssist portal on the Study Assist website. Students can log into this portal to view and monitor their entitlement, includes details of their usage of HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP (including VET FEE HELP), OS-HELP and Commonwealth Scholarships.

60. Questions?
Before we finish today’s webinar we would like to see your feedback on how you found the information provided today on how student entitlements are calculated.
Were you satisfied with the information provided today?
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How useful did you find the information provided today?
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Thank you for participating in todays webinar.

61. Need more help?
For all your data questions contact Tertiary Information Management and Analysis Section Telephone: (02)

62. For all your policy queries
Policy and program management
Administration of FEE-HELP and VET FEE-HELP
Financial estimates and payments
HELP IT System (HITS)
Contact Communications & Student Support Team
If you have any policy or program questions please contact our colleagues.