The government’s lazy accounting is costing students thousands of dollars over the lifetime of their HELP debt. There’s an easy fix, but the major parties just don’t want to do it. It means people are being punished for doing the right thing.
Think about a home loan. Interest is based on what you owe the bank. So when you make payments, you owe less and your interest goes down. But what if the bank held onto your repayments for a whole year before taking them off the mortgage? And they’re still charging you interest the whole time.
If banks did that, you’d think it was a ripoff. So why do it to people with student debt?
When graduates make HELP debt repayments, these payments aren’t counted before interest is applied. Your debt keeps…
