On 2 November 2024 the Australian Government announced changes to repayments for the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) and other student loan schemes.
Around one million Australians will benefit from the changes to make the HELP and student loan repayment system fairer.
On this page:
What is changing?
The Government is making the HELP and student loan repayment system even fairer by changing the repayment system and increasing the amount people can earn before they are required to start repaying their loan.
The minimum repayment threshold will change from $54,435 in 2024-25 to $67,000 in 2025-26.
This change will also introduce a system where HELP repayments are calculated only on the income above the new $67,000 threshold rather than repayments being based on total annual income.
This new repayment system means that people will only have to make student loan repayments when they can afford to do so. People will also make smaller repayments in the early years of their loan.
Proposed repayment thresholds and estimated compulsory repayment amounts are available at Making student repayments fairer.
Subject to the passage of legislation, this will take effect from 1 July 2025.
Why is this changing?
The Government has been working to make the HELP and student loan repayment system better and fairer.
It recognises that there are some things in the way that people pay back their student loans that need fixing, especially at a time when so many Australians are doing it tough.
It particularly responds to calls from the independent review panel – the Australian Universities Accord – that recommended in its Final Report (February 2024) that HELP repayment arrangements should be reformed.
Recommendation 16b stated “reducing the financial burden of repayment on lower-income earners and limiting disincentives to work additional hours by moving to a system of HELP repayment based on marginal rates”.
By making these adjustments to repayment rates and thresholds, the Government will be ensuring that more people have more money in their take home pay now by ‘smoothing out’ the time and pace in which they repay their debt.
Importantly, people on lower incomes will benefit the most from these changes.
Who will benefit and how?
Anyone with one of the following student loans will benefit from these measures:
- any of the HELP loans, including HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP, STARTUP-HELP, SA-HELP, OS-HELP
- VET Student Loans
- Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans
- Student Start-up Loan
- Student Financial Supplement Scheme
On 3 November 2024 the Australian Government further announced it will reduce every Australian’s HELP or student loan debt by 20%.
Details of this announcement are available at the 20% reduction of student loan debt page.