The Electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (VPO) submission contains records for students who:
- Complete a Request for VET FEE-HELP assistance form electronically, and
- Are eligible for HELP assistance, and
- Provide a valid TFN.
TIMING
All documents related to data requirements, including the timing for the provision of the VET Student Submission, as set out in the Timing Matrix.
STRUCTURE
Information about the structure and the elements included on the Electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form can be found in the structure document.
RECORDS TO BE INCLUDED
The data reported for each record in the VPO file is the minimum data requirement to enable the reconstruction of the Request for VET FEE-HELP assistance form if required.
Each student record in this file must have a unique combination of values for
- Student identification code (E313)
- Course of study code (E533)
- Request for Commonwealth assistance indicator (E547)
While there will usually be only one record for a student in this file, there may be more than one record if a student is undertaking more than one course.
However there can only be one record with the unique combination of Student/Course/Request for Commonwealth Assistance Indicator.
RECORDS TO BE EXCLUDED
Records are not to be included in the VPO file where a student completes an Electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (ECAF) and identifies on that form that they are eligible for VET FEE-HELP assistance but a valid Tax File Number (TFN) has not been provided.
Note: If the TFN provided does not pass the ATO's TFN checking algorithm, records must be excluded in the ECAF file. The certificate TFN value of "00bbbbbbbbb" or "ZZZZZZZZZZZ" will not be accepted as a legal TFN on the ECAF submission.
For more information about terms used in this document please refer to the Glossary.