Could you live on $26 a day? Think about how much you spend on food, transport, electricity, rent and so on. Is it less than $182 a week? That’s how much the Austudy allowance for a full-time student is. If you’re renting you may be eligible to receive anywhere up to an extra $7.94 per day to help pay the landlord.

My gripe isn’t about the money itself though; it’s about the indignity you have to suffer to get it.

As a full-time student, your opportunities to make a living are severely limited. If you don’t start uni with a huge pile of savings, the fortnightly payment from Centrelink isn’t about “assistance” so much as subsistence.

Many students get part-time jobs just to achieve a basic standard of living. Not only does this affect your studies, but Centrelink punishes you for it too. If you earn more than $118 per week, your Austudy payment is reduced by 50-60 cents for every dollar you earn. This effectively eliminates any incentive to support yourself independently, yet Austudy alone is hardly enough to live on.

But nothing compares to the effrontery of Centrelink’s “Living Arrangements” form. Centrelink wants to know where you stay and who you’re living with, and if you say you live with someone of the opposite s-x, this automatically triggers a form which demands a disturbingly intrusive list of details. Many students living in share houses will be familiar with “MOD LA” as it’s called.

The form is to help catch out couples, who, because they share their finances, Centrelink feels may not be entitled to the full pittance that singles enjoy. (Try asking for a couple’s discount on the tram or at Coles and you’ll see how logical that policy is. Better still, ask your landlord.)

“Does any person of the opposite s-x regularly stay in your home?” the form asks. This includes “truck drivers, miners, flight attendants, fisherman, members of the armed forces”. I’d love to have been at the meeting where they came up with that list. Presumably the form will be changed so same-s-x couples can join in the fun too from July when they’re officially allowed to exist.

“Do you regularly participate in social or leisure activities” with any of these people? “Do you share household tasks”? Have you “ever purchased or are you paying off any of the following items together? E.g. car, caravan, furniture, household appliances and electrical items etc”.

It’s not enough to let Centrelink know that yes, you do share household tasks and social activities with your housemates. You also have to say which tasks and what activities. Perhaps they think you’re more likely to be a couple if you go to see “He’s Just Not That Into You” than if you host a LAN party together.

Apparently all this information is necessary because the government thinks you deserve less support if your partner makes more than $868.34 a fortnight — the equivalent of an annual salary of $22,500.

What authority does Centrelink have to demand this information? The agency is covered by the Privacy Act 1998, which sets minimum standards for the handling of personal information. One of these standards states that Centrelink must “tell people the purpose for which the information is collected“. The “Living Arrangements” form says the information is to help Centrelink work out your payment correctly. To invoke the words of Mandy Rice-Davies — well they would, wouldn’t they?

Centrelink must also “collect only relevant, up to date and complete information and collect it in a fair and non-intrusive way“. It’s hard to see how this form passes on these important counts. Imagine if your boss demanded to know exactly what you did on the weekend and threatened to withhold your pay if you didn’t say.

But what choice do students have other than to capitulate to Centrelink’s demands, reasonable or not? Never mind your right to privacy or that of your housemates, who may not even be receiving Centrelink payments. Austudy is a lifeline for most students. You can’t refuse to provide the information in case you lose your payment. You can’t appeal unless you’ve been personally affected by a decision — i.e., your payment has been stopped.

Why should full-time students, a constituency consistently neglected by both sides of politics, be subjected to the enduring indignities of dealing with Centrelink? Students have a hard time getting any sympathy at the best of times, with frequent jibes along the lines of “wait until you get into the real world”.

The reason government invests in students through HECS-HELP and Austudy in the first place is because today’s students are tomorrow’s skilled workforce. Why then do governments spend vast amounts of energy and resources on a farcical bureaucracy that polices students and pinches pennies from their already meagre allowances?

To be a student is to be committed to furthering your knowledge and ability. Students demand better of themselves and the “real world” should demand better education policy from government and better treatment from agencies such as Centrelink, which fail to treat students with a basic level of dignity and respect.