Studying physio, pharmacy or speech pathology? Paid prac arrives in July 2027

From Thursday 1 July 2027, eligible students on compulsory placements in pharmacy, physiotherapy, speech pathology and seven other allied health courses will be able to receive a weekly payment while they are there. The money is the Commonwealth Prac Payment, worth A$338.60 a week before tax in 2026. Since it began on Tuesday 1 July 2025, it has gone only to students of teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work.

It is means-tested, and as it stands it is not open to everyone in the lecture theatre. It goes to domestic students, a group that includes permanent residents and leaves out international students. The Prime Minister, the health minister and the education minister announced the expansion on Thursday 23 July 2026, in a statement that described unpaid placements as a big part of healthcare degrees. “For some courses such as radiography, it is more than a year of the degree.”

Ten courses, and the professions folded into them

The Department of Education lists the new courses as audiology, pharmacy, radiography, clinical psychology, physiotherapy, rehabilitation therapies, occupational therapy, podiatry, speech pathology and paramedicine. Three of those names cover more ground than they suggest. Radiography covers qualifications leading to professions such as diagnostic radiography, medical radiation therapy, nuclear medicine technology and sonography. The examples under rehabilitation therapies are orthoptics, orthotics and prosthetics, exercise physiology, developmental education and rehabilitation counselling, mental health included. Clinical psychology includes the professional pathway courses that lead to registration as a psychologist with the Psychology Board of Australia.

The health minister, Mark Butler, put it more plainly: “if you’re training to be a pharmacist, physio or psychologist, you’ll also now have a bit of extra help to get through.”

The department expects the program to support around 95,000 students a year, 21,000 of them additional higher education students in the new allied health courses. Its expansion document says the government will invest A$745.1 million in the program over the four years from 2026-27, A$158.4 million of it new money.

What the Commonwealth Prac Payment asks of a student

The same document says the payment stays means-tested, available to eligible students on Australian Government income support and to those who need to work more than 15 hours a week during their studies. It does not restate the other conditions for the new courses, and in mid-October 2026 the program’s legal rules, the Higher Education Support (Other Grants) Guidelines 2022, still limited the payment to midwifery, nursing, social work and teaching. For the existing courses, the conditions run as follows.

The student must be a domestic student in a Commonwealth supported place. The University of Sydney spells out the residency part as “an Australian citizen or permanent resident, or New Zealand citizen”. Placements must average 30 hours or more a week, unless they are midwifery continuity of care placements. The means test can be passed in two ways. A student already receiving an Australian Government income support payment, such as Austudy, Youth Allowance or ABSTUDY, passes on that basis. Anyone else has to show a need to work, with more than 15 hours a week on average over four weeks, and average earnings under A$1,536.37 a week before tax over the same period, government scholarships counted. That is the 2026 threshold. The department adds that exceptional circumstances may also qualify a student.

The weekly rate is benchmarked to the single Austudy rate on 1 January each year; on that rule, placement weeks from July to December 2027 would be paid at the 1 January 2027 rate. The expansion document ties the change to students undertaking mandatory placements from 1 July 2027 and does not mention the year a student enrolled. A placement in the first half of 2027 falls before the start. When the payment began in 2025, the guidelines let placements already under way on 1 July count from that day.

Four weeks of payslips and a cap on paid weeks

Students apply through their university or other higher education provider, which pays them. At the University of Sydney, for the existing courses, that means one online application each calendar year, which the university suggests lodging within the two months before a placement starts. Students relying on the work and income tests attach evidence covering a continuous four-week period, such as payslips or a letter from an employer. Payments go into a nominated bank account, weekly at the University of Sydney and fortnightly at UNSW.

Payment weeks have a maximum. The guidelines set 20 for nursing and 26 for social work, and the University of Sydney says the cap is based on the minimum placement period the accrediting body requires. The expansion document sets no figure for the allied health courses. The department treats the payment as ordinary income, to be reported to the Australian Taxation Office, and students on income support must report it as part of their obligations.

Same ward, different visa

For families who came on permanent skilled or family visas, permanent residence meets the current residency rule. A permanent resident in a supported place qualifies on the same terms as a citizen. A student visa does not count. UNSW’s guidance puts it in one line: “No, international students are not eligible for the CPP.”

At the end of 2025, India was the largest source of student visa holders in Australia. On 31 December, 88,306 of the 477,890 were from India, according to the Department of Home Affairs, a count that includes partners and children who hold student visas as family members. None of them meets the current residency rule. Two physiotherapy students born in Pune, one a permanent resident in a supported place and one on a student visa, can do the same placement hours on the same ward. If that rule carries over to physiotherapy in July 2027, only the permanent resident could be considered for the payment.

On the ward, the hours can be identical. Under the payment’s current rules, whether they come with a weekly payment turns on residency and income.