Commonwealth Prac Payment: ten allied health courses from 1 July 2027
Two physiotherapy students born in Pune can work the same placement hours on the same ward. One is a permanent resident in a Commonwealth supported place; the other holds a student visa. From Thursday 1 July 2027, eligible students on compulsory placements in physiotherapy, pharmacy, speech pathology and seven other allied health courses will be able to receive the Commonwealth Prac Payment, worth A$338.60 a week before tax in 2026.
Since it began on Tuesday 1 July 2025, the payment has gone only to students of teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work. It is means-tested and, as it stands, reserved for domestic students, permanent residents included and international students excluded. If that rule carries over to physiotherapy in July 2027, only the permanent resident could be considered for it.
Ten courses, three of them wider than their names
The Prime Minister, the health minister and the education minister announced the expansion on Thursday 23 July 2026, calling unpaid placements a big part of healthcare degrees: “For some courses such as radiography, it is more than a year of the degree.” The Department of Education lists the ten 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 spans qualifications leading to professions such as diagnostic radiography, medical radiation therapy, nuclear medicine technology and sonography. The department’s examples under rehabilitation therapies are orthoptics, orthotics and prosthetics, exercise physiology, developmental education and rehabilitation counselling, mental health included. Clinical psychology takes in the professional pathway courses leading 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.”
A$745.1 million, and guidelines written for four fields
The department expects the expanded 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 puts the government’s investment in the program at A$745.1 million over the four years from 2026-27, A$158.4 million of it new money.
On eligibility the document is brief: 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, and none of the other conditions is restated for the new courses. Nor had the program’s legal rules moved: in late October 2026 the Higher Education Support (Other Grants) Guidelines 2022 still limited the payment to midwifery, nursing, social work and teaching.
The expansion document ties the change to mandatory placements from 1 July 2027, so a placement in the first half of 2027 falls before the start, and it does not mention the year a student enrolled. When the payment began in 2025, the guidelines let placements already under way on 1 July count from that day. 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.
Commonwealth Prac Payment rules rest on residency, hours and income
In the four existing fields, the payment is limited to domestic students enrolled 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.
There are two ways through the means test. A student already receiving an Australian Government income support payment, such as Austudy, Youth Allowance or ABSTUDY, passes on that basis. Anyone else must show a need to work: 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.
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. Students relying on the work and income tests attach evidence for a continuous four-week period, such as payslips or an employer’s letter. Payments go into a nominated bank account, weekly at the University of Sydney and fortnightly at UNSW.
The guidelines limit paid weeks to 20 for nursing and 26 for social work, a cap the University of Sydney says is based on the minimum placement period the accrediting body requires. For the allied health courses, the expansion document gives no figure. 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.
The July announcement named ten courses and set no residency rule. Under the payment’s current rules, the same week on the same ward can be worth A$338.60 before tax to one nursing student and nothing to another, depending on residency and income.
