Rural work
Money you may be owed
Rural HELP relief, checked against your own documents.
GPs and nurse practitioners working in rural and remote areas can have part of their HELP debt cleared. The proof comes from your own documents.
Rural HELP debt relief
GPs and nurse practitioners in rural and remote areas
- General practice work, at least 24 hours a week
- Doctors: time counts from 36 months after first registration
- You live there, not just work there
- Modified Monash areas 3 to 7
- The time must already be served
For a six-year medical degree, 3 years in a rural area clears half your HELP debt for the course and 6 years clears all of it. In a remote area it is 18 months and 3 years. Indexation is waived for each eligible year.
We line up the proof from your vault: contracts and payslips for the work, your lease and bills for where you lived, and your HELP statement. No yes or no yet: which version of the rural map applies to past years is not settled, and we will not guess.
Source: Department of Education and Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
Rural rating
What each rural rating qualifies you for.
Rural programs use the Modified Monash Model, from MM 1 for cities to MM 7 for very remote communities. Each program covers its own range of ratings and pays for time served.
Remote time, MM 6 to 7
18 monthsClears half your HELP debt on a six-year degree; 3 years clears all of itRural time, MM 3 to 5
3 yearsClears half your HELP debt on a six-year degree; 6 years clears all of itBonded service, MM 2 to 7
156 weeksAbout 3 years, completed within 18 years of finishing your medical degree| Rating | Towns, for example | Rural HELP relief, GPs and nurse practitioners | Bonded service | GP Workforce Incentive | NSW Health incentive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MM 1Metropolitan | Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane | No | No | No | No |
| MM 2Regional centre | Bendigo, Toowoomba, Cairns | No | Counts | No | No |
| MM 3Large rural town | Wagga Wagga, Broken Hill, Mildura | Rural: half your debt after 3 years, all of it after 6 | Counts | From $3,600 a year early on; first payment after 8 active quarters | Up to $10,000 in your first year, then $5,000; $10,000 and $10,000 for critical roles |
| MM 4Medium rural town | Emerald, Kingaroy, Atherton | Rural: half after 3 years, all after 6 | Counts | Rises with the rating and your years there | Up to $10,000, then $5,000; $10,000 and $10,000 for critical roles |
| MM 5Small rural town | Orbost, Warwick | Rural: half after 3 years, all after 6 | Counts | Rises with the rating and your years there | Up to $20,000 in your first year, then $10,000 in your second |
| MM 6Remote community | Mount Isa, Cooktown, Queenstown | Remote: half after 18 months, all after 3 years | Counts | Rises again; first payment after 4 active quarters | Up to $20,000, then $10,000 |
| MM 7Very remote community | Bourke, Longreach, Charleville | Remote: half after 18 months, all after 3 years | Counts | Up to $60,000 a year after five years; first payment after 4 active quarters | Up to $20,000, then $10,000 |
State by state
Only NSW pays by rating. Other states pay by site, by region or through your contract. The table shows what each health service offers when you move there and what its agreements pay while you work there.
| Health service | When you move | Conditions | While you work there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canberra Health Services | Nurses and midwives: up to $12,000, plus $2,000 for each dependant, from interstate or overseas; other roles reimbursed | Subject to approval; repaid if you leave within 24 months | No rural allowance. |
| NSW Health | Up to $20,000 in your first year and $10,000 in your second at MM 5 to 7; at MM 3 to 4, up to $10,000 then $5,000, or $10,000 in each year for critical roles | Eligible hard-to-fill and critical roles, to 30 June 2029; roles are reviewed each year | Nurses west of set lines: $4.81 a week climatic or $9.44 isolation (not both). Tibooburra and Ivanhoe: registered nurses $42.41 a week and 7 extra days’ leave. No isolation allowance for doctors. |
| NT Health | Nurses: up to $9,000, paid at 3, 12 and 24 months | Doctors agree a relocation package at the offer | A remote locality allowance, fares out and rent and power concessions, set by the Commissioner. Amounts for health staff not yet confirmed. |
| Queensland Health | No attraction incentive; it closed in 2025 | Relocation is set role by role in your contract | Remote area nurses at MM 6 to 7 sites: $3,714 after year 1, $11,140 after year 2, then $7,426 a year, and at least 2 weeks’ development leave. A retention allowance for rural generalists at MM 3 to 7; rate not yet confirmed. |
| SA Health | Up to $10,000 in Adelaide, $13,000 regional and $15,000 remote, reimbursed | Interstate and international moves | A remote locality allowance, for example $9,840 a year in Coober Pedy and $11,208 in Roxby Downs. |
| Tasmanian Department of Health | Travel, removals and temporary accommodation reimbursed | No amount published | On King, Flinders, Bruny and the other islands: a district allowance and Bass Strait fares. Amounts not yet confirmed. |
| Victorian health services | No state relocation incentive | Set role by role in your contract | Doctors at listed regional services: a location bonus of $12,000 for specialists and $7,000 for trainees, for the year to 30 June 2026. A rural and isolated practice allowance for nurses; rate not yet confirmed. |
| WA Country Health Service | Nurses and midwives: $5,000 to $17,000 at endorsed country sites | Paid 40% at 26 weeks and 60% at 52 | Nurses: a district allowance by zone, an extra week’s leave north of the 26th parallel and a yearly return fare to Perth from remote districts. Allied health: $4,000 a year at listed remote communities. |
| WA Health, doctors | Relocation for roles north of the 26th parallel | Bonded 2 years from interstate, 3 from overseas; return fare paid | North of the 26th parallel: 12 weeks’ salary after 3 years, then 4 weeks each later year, 5 extra days’ leave and a district allowance. |
Ongoing allowances from each state’s public health agreements and determinations, at the latest rates we could confirm (mid 2025 to mid 2026): the NSW Nurses and Midwives Award 2023, Queensland’s Remote Area Nursing Incentive Package, South Australia’s Determination 3.2, the Victorian medical specialists’ agreement, and the WA nurses’, doctors’ and HSUWA agreements 2024. Where a rate is not yet confirmed, we say so.
Rural HELP relief is for GPs working at least 24 hours a week in general practice, and for nurse practitioners. Time counts from 1 January 2022, and for doctors only from 36 months after first registration. You must live in the area as well as work there. Only time already served counts. Each eligible year also waives that year’s indexation. A four-year graduate degree needs two-thirds of the time above; a two-year nurse practitioner masters, a third.
It is not yet confirmed which version of the rating applies to past years. Bourke is MM 6 under the 2019 version and MM 7 under 2023. NSW reviews its eligible roles each year, and a role that is no longer hard to fill leaves the scheme after 12 months’ notice. Other states’ incentives are not set by rating. Sources: Department of Education; Department of Health, Disability and Ageing; NSW Health.
Rural HELP, added up
Add up your rural time for HELP relief.
Separate placements add up. Time counts only after your clock starts and only where you lived as well as worked. Enter your placements, or let the vault fill them in from your contracts.
Your placements
GPs and nurse practitioners
| Town | From | Months | Lived | GP 24h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fill in your details above to see your result.
Where you stand
Fill in the form to see your result here.
This counts your time; it does not decide eligibility. How mixed rural and remote time combines, and which version of the rural rating applies to past years, are confirmed before any claim. Your HELP statement is the third check, for relief already applied. Source: Department of Education.