Parents ‘stockpiling’ uniforms ahead of changes to school bonus program

More than $80 million of the School Saving Bonus remains unspent despite a last-minute rush by families to redeem vouchers before restrictions are placed on what can be bought.

Designed to ease the cost-of-living burden, the $275 million program gave families $400 for each child at a government school to be spent on uniforms, textbooks and school activities such as camps and excursions.

Carly Brown-McErlain with her daughter Ayda, 6, said she spent about $300 of her School Saving Bonus on uniforms. Credit: Wayne Taylor

From Tuesday families will no longer be able to spend the money on uniforms and textbooks. The $84 million in unallocated funds is to be transferred to families’ school activities accounts.

However, confusion about when the program’s funds would expire led to a last-minute rush on uniform stores, with many parents thinking it was a “use it or lose it” scheme that expired at the end of the month.

Parent Carly Brown-McErlain said while she found the process of accessing the funds straightforward, there was uncertainty among parents at her school about what would happen to the money they hadn’t spent.

“It was framed that we would lose it as of June 30, so everybody started to spend it,” she said. “It felt like, use it or lose it.”

Brown-McErlain’s daughter Ayda is in year 1 at the local primary school. Brown-McErlain said that because her daughter’s uniforms were largely secondhand, she decided to allocate $300 of her bonus to uniforms, including buying the school beanie and raincoat.

A mothers and children fitness instructor, Brown-McErlain said that with her four-year-old son, Albie, starting at the same school in 2027, the uniforms would set her family up well as her son would inherit his sister’s uniforms.

According to Education Department figures, spending on uniforms has been the most popular way to allocate the funds, parents having spent $81.3 million on uniforms since November.

However, uniform retailers have reported some families are stockpiling school uniforms ahead of Tuesday’s change to the program, putting a strain on supplies and making retailers anxious about how much stock to order in the future.

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Retailer Patricia Robinson, who runs B-CUT stores in Wodonga and Myrtleford, said some families were buying up to a year ahead of what they needed.

“I had families buying a size six for their child, but then buying some size eights as well, because they had the money to do it,” she said.

B-Cut sells uniforms for about 20 Victorian schools.

Robinson said stock shortages had led her to apologise to disgruntled customers.

“I’ve had to say, ‘Look, we’re doing our best. We’re out of stock and our supplier is out of stock as well’,” she said. “We’ve had to do that just to keep our customer relationships strong.”

Retailer Bob Stewart sells uniforms for about 60 state schools.

Director Francis Stewart said trade had picked up noticeably, ahead of changes to the program.

“There is an element of I’ve got the $400, and I want to spend it,” he said. “There’s been a bit of stockpiling by families who are putting things in the cupboard for later on.”

Like Robinson, he said the stockpiling of uniforms would make it difficult to anticipate what demand would be like in the future.

Brunella School Wear owner Elissa May said the greatest demand was for primary school uniforms.

“Our winter stuff got sold before we even got it because we had to order it so far in advance,” May said.

She said uniform sales had to be managed to ensure parents were buying only what they needed, with any extras being put on order.

“If a child walks out with five T-shirts, then it chews your stock up pretty quickly because without the vouchers a child would walk out with two or three,” May said.

The School Saving Bonus, announced in the 2024 state budget, provided $400 for each of Victoria’s 700,000 state school students.

‘We’re out of stock and our supplier is out of stock as well.’

Under the program, families were able to nominate how they wanted to split their bonus between uniforms, textbooks or school activities.

As of Tuesday, any unspent uniform and textbook money will roll over to families’ school accounts and go towards covering the cost of school activities such as excursions, swimming lessons and camps.

Parents have spent $76.6 million on school activities and $32.3 million on textbooks since the program launched last November.

However, the program got off to a shaky start, with email glitches delaying the distribution of access codes to some parents while late bill payments left at least two stores up to $35,000 out of pocket more than a month after they sent invoices to the Education Department.

The government revealed in May’s state budget that the $280 million scheme would not be renewed.

Opposition education spokesperson Jess Wilson said the program was inequitable and had been poorly designed.

“In many instances, this payment created more problems than it solved and leaves no lasting benefit for families facing ever-increasing education costs,” she said.

Education Minister Ben Carroll pointed to other programs for students including free public transport, vision screening, dental check-ups and school breakfasts.

“We know parents are doing it tough – and we’re on their side,” he said.

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