[Australia] Report calls for probe into student poverty

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A Senate report on student income support has recommended the Government consider changes to payments and eligibility criteria.

The committee says the issue of student poverty needs further investigation, although government senators disagreed with more than half the recommendations.

Labor Senator Trish Crossin says the committee heard evidence of students resorting to prostitution to pay for food.

She says the Government could immediately act to help students by indexing student income and exempting scholarships from income tests.

"There is a view here that students are embarking on a one-way road of user pays, and that if you want to go to university you try and survive and struggle to eat and live anyway that you can," she said.

"What this report is actually saying to the Government, it's a red light flashing really, and alerting the Government that this is an area of public policy that is seriously under-resourced and needs addressing."

The Australian Democrats have accused the major parties of failing to do enough to alleviate student poverty.

Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja says 60 per cent of students are living below the poverty line.

She says payments have not kept pace with the cost of living and the eligibility criteria need serious reform.

"The Government has been missing in action on the issue of student income support for many years, and as a result it is exacerbating the skills shortage issue," she said.

"But we are also looking towards the future where you will have not only debt ridden generations of students, but students who decide it's too difficult to enter into or participate in higher education."