Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this articleBrisbane wealth adviser Alanna Fraser has been battling to pay off a university student debt of $102,000.The National Union of Students says the federal government is profiting from student loansTreasurer Jim Chalmers says the system is fair
Ms Fraser has joined a growing chorus of graduates, supported by The Greens, in calling for an overhaul of the system as student loans balloon as a result of high inflation. It's allowing the federal government to pocket a windfall from the high indexation, based on CPI over a two-year period.Ms Fraser said when she logged onto her myGov account to look at her HECS-HELP debt she found it "terrifying, heartbreaking and depressing"."The sensible choice would be to freeze indexation until inflation gets under control, but the selfish person in me says abolish it.
"I found out the hard way. I was so excited to pay off my debt, but the ATO did not appear to update the debt payments," she said."I think it's profiteering — people need to know about it and it has to stop now."Lotta Halsted, 25, is about to have her first baby with a $34,900 HECS-HELP debt hanging over her head.The nursing graduate has whittled it down from $42,000, but now fears it will soar while she is on maternity leave.
She was also backing some a "pausing, or alternatively a link to the cash rate" rather than using inflation as the measure. "It accesses the cash at the Reserve Bank cash rate, a 10-year bond yield, which currently sits at 3.6 per cent," he said. Several student bodies recently presented papers or addressed the Senate and Education and Employment Committee which is inquiring into the Greens Bill to abolish indexation and raise the minimum repayment income to the median wage which sits at $62,400.Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi says the student debt system is causing enormous stress.
Easy don't get a Loan.
A Country that puts their Jungones into debt for their Education, whilst blowing 360 Billion on Military Toys, is hardly a Country to Migrate to or die for, education should be free, and no Subsidaisation of Privat Unis, Germany had the Telecolege, Australia has nothing !!!
Linking indexation to the 10-year bond rate (capped at 6%) suddenly looking like a pretty good deal.
For debts to be indexed at 7.9%, annual inflation for March would have to be over 10%: I doubt it.
12 months national service and all debts erased or do 12 months first, then education is free thereafter
HECS should be ABOLISHED.
Time to join the US and forgive student loans.
she knew she was getting into debt when signed up to study
Alanna made the chose to spend $102,000 - she now needs to suck it up and pay it back ….
Keen to know what qualifications the treasurer has and if he went to university, how he went about paying for it Might help most get a better picture of his stance on the subject.
To many people look at university as free … doing countless degrees or masters - it all need to be paid back some time … my degree was $20k and I paid it all off in 2 years
That just decentivises people paying it off. Dumb idea
Wow a debt of over $100k for university. She chose that presumably in the hope of securing a high paying job. Lesson for kids, a trade is a better choice unless you absolutely need a degree, i.e. doctor, lawyer, engineer etc.
Perhaps the more pressing matter is to reign in the enormous cost of & proliferation of completely useless university degrees.
Everything is free until you have to pay it back.
There should be a levy applied to all non citizens residents who are doing Australian university courses with the proceeds going to offset citizen HECS loans🤔
They voted for it. Voting Labor have consequences.
Indexation is only fair. What's not fair was the government changing the terms of the original agreement on the repayment threshold, reducing it from 'average wages' to just barely above the full-time casual minimum wage. The original agreement should be honoured. auspol
Should of done a trade! Paid to train, no hecs and make more money when finished! And career supported by both major parties ie 100% offset utes in construction boom!
So student loans are indexed but the proposed Superannuation Tax won’t be - how good are politicians at coming after you for the money they want? JEChalmers AlboMP
I accumulated the maximum possible debt through the fee help scheme before paying tens of thousands extra to meet the minimum cost of my chosen course. Today I have my dream job after working in the field I trained in for 7 years.
It’s pretty simple. If you choose to get a degree, make sure there’s a real job at the end of it.
Soooo you want to make the cheapest loan you will ever get even cheaper?… at the tax payers expense.
13 Billion a Year for 30 years, for nothing at all or for fixing student debt, free education was Withlams way, but not of the new Labor Party, free Dental or Nuclear subs, I know what I would go for !!!
I've met some people with impressive credentials picking fruit
Hey, 90% of you: you don't need a university degree. Is the reason why we are sorely lacking Tradies is because women won't 'date down'- ie, consider a partner who lacks a tertiary degree?
Funny how wages aren't linked to indexation. Wrote off student debt and do thus by scrapping aukus USUKA
Everyone should just identify as Indigenous. Problem solved.
I paid my masters off. Note my boys have just paid their bachelors off. It isn’t hard, knuckle down knuckle head.
It is a crude mechanism. I struggled to accurately predict how much would be taken out each year. Payments being handled by my employer kept it at arms length from me. Give us more control to pay it down smarter.
“still owing the government money for her Bachelor of Economics and a Masters of Financial Planning degrees” The real question is can we get our money back.
More whinging from the entitlement generation.
I always wondered why it was indexed rather than interest. Now I realise that interest rates are being pinned below the inflation rate so more people get hurt by indexation! Genius!
It is fair sadly... Guess those with high skilled jobs will be even more in demand in the not too distant future as education becomes less affordable.
Sorry, but they need to take responsibility for their choices. That’s how you learn there’s no free lunch.
And it was the Labor Party that inflicted this debt on the Australian people.
I’ll consider calling it “fair”, Mr Chalmers, when the salary I’m owed each year also goes up by the same amount. As it stands, I’ll have paid off my HECS in ~350 years.
Invest in our future slave fund. Go to Uni and get a degree they said at high school. Does anyone fully explain to the kids what a HECS debt means until it's too late?
Which is why Ive been paying mine off. Granted that money could have been put to better use elsewhere in the economy.
why, in professional fields inflation is auto linked to income.
Albo in parliament Australians have had a very good 10 months.
Are mortgages pegged to the inflation rate? Does your mortgage go up by CPI every year? Why do HECS debts have to be increased every year by CPI?