
The Commonwealth Assisted Students (or HELP Due) submission supports the reporting of all student debts and revisions to debts in the following submissions:
- Student and Student revisions
- OS‑HELP and OS‑HELP revisions
- SA‑HELP and SA‑HELP revisions
A HELP Due (DU) submission is created for each half year reporting period. When you are reporting Student, OS‑HELP or SA‑HELP data to the department you must include a record in this submission for every student who has received Commonwealth assistance.
How does the DU submission work?
The DU submission is the only submission in the Higher Education Data Collection that is not submitted to the department. Its final status in HEPCAT always remains at VALIDATED.
Why isn't this file submitted?
Once the DU submission is validated, HEPCAT will automatically pick up and transfer the required TFNs and student details from this submission when you report your Student, OS‑HELP or SA‑HELP data.
- HEPCAT locates the required records in the DU submission by matching the Student identification code (E313) and Course code (E307)
- These HELP Due records are then linked to your Student, OS‑HELP, SA‑HELP or revision submission and transferred directly to HEIMS.
- You can view these records in the tab HELP Due Snapshot (DE) in HEPCAT.
Note that you cannot directly enter data into this tab – this is just a viewing tab to see the HELP Due records tab transferred to HEIMS with your submission.
How to revise data in the DU submission
This guide explains how to modify your DU submission when you need to add new records or update existing records in a DU submission
Adding or updating data in a DU submission
To add additional records or update existing values in a DU submission in a half year reporting period you can:
- open the submission in HEPCAT and manually add the new record or update the existing values you want to revise; or
- use the Import function from the Tools menu in HEPCAT to update or replace the existing DU submission. This function has two options:
- Update checks for matching student records and updates all existing values on these records with new input values.
- Note that the TFN cannot be updated to a NULL value
- If a record does not match an existing record it will be added as a new record.
- Replace simply replaces the existing DU submission for the period.
- All existing records in the DU submission are deleted and replaced with all the records from the new input file
- Note that you cannot replace an existing DU submission if it includes HELP Due records that have already been reported in a Student, SA‑HELP, OS‑HELP or revision submission (i.e. the submission for the half year period has a status of Submitted or Accepted in HEPCAT).
- You can update a DU record that has been reported but you cannot delete and replace it.
- Update checks for matching student records and updates all existing values on these records with new input values.
Elements that cannot be revised using the DU submission
1. Elements 313, 307, 488
These are the primary values that uniquely identify a HELP Due record. HEIMS uses these to locate an existing record in the database.
- E313 (Student identification code)
- E307 (Course code)
- E488 (Commonwealth Higher Education Student Support Number (CHESSN)
If you need to revise these elements for a student record please contact HEIMS data collections.
2. Elements 314, 315
For these elements, only one value is stored in HEIMS for the student. This means if you report a different value in another Student submission the value will not change in HEIMS. To correct the data it must be revised through the Enrolment Revision submission.
Correcting students TFNs that could not be verified by the ATO
You can update the TFN or personal details for a student whose TFN could not be verified by the ATO in two key ways:
- Submit the corrected information for the student using the TFN Revision (TR) submission.
If your student administration system does not generate a TR submission you can populate this submission in HEPCAT by:- using the Generate TR Flat File button on the TFN Revision Report in HEIMS Online to create a TR file to import directly into HEPCAT; or
- importing the records in a HELP Due file format directly into the TR submission; or
- manually entering the student details directly into the TR submission grid.
- Submit the corrected information using the DU submission.
Note that this can only be submitted by selecting the Revised HELP Due submission option in the Submit Submission tab in HEPCAT.
Scope and structure
The HELP Due submission includes data from one file – the Commonwealth assisted students – HELP Due (DU) file. The guide to the scope, structure and data elements for the file are available by selecting the buttons below.
The guides to the scope, structure and data elements for each file are available by selecting the buttons below.
Commonwealth assisted students file – HELP Due (DU)
Related Resources
Reporting to the ATO
Our Reporting student HELP debts to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) page includes further resources including:
- TFN verification FAQs
- TFN verification and HELP debt transfers webinar
Opens in a new window: HEIMS Online Accessing TFN Reports user guide PDF (919kB) or
HEIMS Online Accessing TFN Reports user guide DOCX (1.1MB)
Training
Training is offered throughout the year and you may register on our Training page and via our eNews. Our training page hosts training videos and webinar presentations on key topics which may be viewed at any time. We also offer webinar or face to face training tailored for your team or your organisation.
Toolkits
The Revising your data toolkit provides detailed information about the different processes to revise your data.
The Reporting with HEPCAT toolkit provides you with information about how to submit data with HEPCAT.