Inflation pushes student debts up despite repayments – Crikey

Lower repayment thresholds and higher inflation has created a new class of hundreds of thousands of Australians with HELP debts that go backwards even as taxpayers are charged for them, 360info analysis of taxpayer data has found.

The Australian government announced a policy at the weekend intended to restrain HELP debt inflation on years when prices grow faster than wages. This policy is set to retroactively apply from 2023. The reduction in last years indexation rate will see the number of people with HELP debts going backwards fall from one in three to about one in 10, our analysis based on the Australian Tax Offices de-identified tax returns for 2% of Australians shows.