My friend and her student payments?

I know this girl who is currently 16 and is getting $210 every month or something from the government to pay for school fees. Aswell as this, she has a job earning about $10-$12 (casual) an hour and cannot live by herself if she had to. Her dad is in another country and doesnt have to pay money or something, there is a reason, but her mom does absolutely nothing and is on the dole. she gets about enough to live on with her and my friend, but she also takes my friends student payments and says she needs them to help live and pay for stuff. My friend has asked for these back from her mom, but her mom threatens to kick her out if she doesnt get them. Sure, she could live at her grandparent's place, but they have no internet for study and stuff like that, plus live quite a bit away from school. Her mom sits there playing runescape or something all day, no job, no housework or a bare minimum so ive been told, and is capable of work i think, even a part time desk job or something. i have done the math and she would earn over 4 times the amount she currently gets, plus my friend will get her payments. From the food she eats and bills, i have roughly calculated their bills and stuff to be payable with her dole amount aswell, but i dunno if there are other payments to be made or something. Is taking these payments legal, and can she really be blackmailed into giving these up to her mom at the threat of being kicked out? I'm just curious if this is allowed or not, and my friend only uses the internet for study. We are not sure if it's normal or allowed =/