The federal government has rising university student fees in its sights for the next stage of its university debt overhaul, with a government source saying a one-off 20 per cent cut to debts is an interim measure.

Labor has made an election promise to wipe an average of $5,500 from existing student HECS debts and reduce the minimum amounts graduates must repay, as well as raise the income threshold at which mandatory repayments begin.

On Monday Health Minister Mark Butler hinted there were more changes to come before the year’s end.

“As Jason Clare has said, he’s got a very substantial report in front of him, the Universities Accord Report that makes a series of recommendations about structural change to university fees,” Mr Butler said.

The Albanese Labor Government will raise the minimum repayment threshold for student loans and cut repayment rates to make the repayment system fairer for all Australians with a student debt – around 3 million people. 

From 1 July next year, the Government will reduce the amount Australians with a student debt have to repay per year and raise the threshold when people need to start repaying.

The reforms will apply to everyone who has a student debt, including all HELP, VET Student Loan, Australian Apprenticeship Support Loan and other student support loans.

The Government will lift the minimum repayment threshold from around $54,000 in 2024-25 to $67,000 in 2025-26 and introduce a system where repayments are based on the portion of…

(Nov 26): Thai banks’ non-performing loans last quarter jumped to their highest level in three years as troubled corporate and individual borrowers continued to struggle to repay debt, though the Bank of Thailand announced progress in talks with the finance ministry on relief measures.

Some 2.97% of commercial banks’ outstanding loans were non-performing at the end of September, up from 2.84% in the previous quarter, Bank of Thailand assistant governor Suwannee Jatsadasak told a press conference Tuesday. That was the highest ratio since the third quarter of 2021, she said.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has pledged measures to help reduce high household debt levels that are fueling bad loans and making banks reluctant to extend…

Three million Australians will see $3 billion wiped from their student debt after the Albanese Government passed legislation through the Parliament tonight.

This legislation fixes the way indexation is calculated on student debt and will be backdated to 1 June 2023.

The Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 caps the HELP indexation rate to the lower of either the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Wage Price Index (WPI).

This change applies to HELP, VET Student Loan, Australian Apprenticeship Support Loan and other student support loans.

This will benefit all Australians with a student debt, fixing last year’s spike in the indexation of 7.1 per cent and preventing indexation from outpacing wages in the…

The ridiculous co-opting of American policy fads by the Albanese government continues unabated.

When the government adjusted the HELP indexation rate in the May budget, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese deliberately invoked the Biden administration’s (unconstitutional) student loan forgiveness, saying “We’re wiping more than $3 billion in student debt.”

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