Aussies with student debts will get up to $50 back in their fortnightly pay cheques from Wednesday due to changes to loan repayment rates for HECS and HELP debts.
The suite of changes, which are backdated to July 1 and will applied by the ATO from Wednesday, was introduced alongside Labor’s keystone election-winning pledge to slash HECS debts by 20 per cent.
The biggest benefactors of the changes will be for people who earn $70,000 a year. They will pay about $50 less per fortnight under the new system, totalling $1300 a year.
The minimum repayment threshold will be increased from $54,435 to $67,000, while the thresholds have also been condensed from 19 brackets to just four with lowered rates of repayment.
Instead of flat percentage…