The Commonwealth Prac Payment (CPP) is designed to help nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work students cover some of the costs associated with mandatory placements, or practicums, required for their higher education courses.
How the Commonwealth Prac Payment works
Starting from July 2025, if you are undertaking mandatory placement as part of a teaching, nursing and midwifery, or social work degree, and meet the eligibility criteria, you will be able to access $331.65 per week for the duration of your placement.
The CPP is benchmarked against single Austudy rate and will be allocated based on a means test, ensuring that the funds go to the students who need it most.
Eligibility Criteria for the Commonwealth Prac Payment
To be eligible for the CPP, you must be:
- A domestic student studying in a Commonwealth Supported Place.
- Enrolled in a Bachelor or Masters program for teaching, nursing, midwifery, or social work.
- Either receiving a Centrelink benefit, or meet the 'Need to Work' and means test.
- Completing a placement of at least 30 hours per week. The 30 hours per week requirement does not apply to Midwifery Continuity of Care placements, which have alternate criteria.
Please ensure you are enrolled in a placement course before applying.
Eligible UniSQ Programs
| Education |
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| Midwifery |
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| Nursing |
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| Social Work |
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Paramedicine, Engineering, and other Allied Health programs are not eligible for the CPP.
Applying for the Commonwealth Prac Payment
Applications for the CPP are allocated by a means test. There are two ways to be eligible for the payments:
- You are receiving a
- You meet the
I am receiving a commonwealth income support payment
If you are receiving a commonwealth income support payment, you can apply for the CPP at any time through UniSQ after you enrol in an eligible course.
You will need to apply for the CPP for every placement that you are attending. However, if you have received a CPP in the last six months, you will not need to supply any evidence - you just need to apply and confirm that your details haven’t changed. If it has been over six months, you will need to supply evidence of eligibility again in your application.
I am not receiving a commonwealth income support payment
If you are not receiving a commonwealth income support payment, you will need to meet the ‘Need to Work’ test. This means you will need to supply evidence that you have worked 60 hours over 4 consecutive weeks in the teaching period prior to the commencement of your placement.
If you haven’t completed the 4 weeks, or received evidence yet, you can still apply for the CPP and supply the evidence when you have it. We will hold your application for you if you meet all the other eligibility criteria.
How to apply
Log in to the using your UConnect login and select the ‘CPP’ tile. You will need to supply in your application. We recommend you gather all necessary documents ahead of time to ensure a smooth application process.
Additional state-based grants
The Queensland Government offers a number of other grants for students undertaking professional experience placements who aren’t eligible for the CPP.
- The offers eligible education students up to $3,400 to assist with organising placement-related travel expenses.
- The offers eligible education students the opportunity to receive up to $5,000 to assist with organising placement-related travel expenses.
- The offers preservice teachers a $5,000 grant to assist with expenses associated with completing their final professional experience placement in any Queensland state school.
- The is offered to students working in regional, rural or remote areas. The allowance offers a $5,000 one-off allowance to eligible nursing and midwifery students.
- supports Queensland nursing, midwifery, allied health, and dentistry students interested in exploring career pathways in remote and rural health.
- is south east Queensland’s rural health club dedicated to helping medical, nursing, paramedics, dentistry, and allied health students experience the unique career and lifestyle opportunities to be found in regional, rural and remote medicine.
Placement at UniSQ
You can find placement resources for Health, Engineering and Sciences placements and Education placements on our website.
Support at UniSQ
If you find yourself in a situation where you need extra support, UniSQ Student Advisor (Wellbeing) can provide emergency assistance and facilitate referral to an organisation for additional support.