Labor has announced changes to the way Hecs and Help student debts are indexed, with the change likely to deliver a saving to most debtors.
The new approach will use the lower of either the consumer price index (CPI) or the wage price index (WPI) to calculate the indexation amount. This replaces the old method of only using the CPI, which delivered a 7.1% increase to education debts last year.
The measure will also be backdated to 2023, meaning the 7.1% increase will be replaced with a much lower 3.2%, and will result in people receiving a credit to their Help/Hecs debts to adjust for the difference in the CPI and WPI indexation in 2023 and 2024.
You can use this calculator to see an estimate of how much such a credit could be, based on your Help or Hecs debt and your income:
This is, of course, a simple estimate based on only your income and debt, and uses an assumption for the WPI, so shouldn’t be relied on for anything beyond a general indication of how the scheme might work.
And here, we’ve updated an older calculator that uses a simple model to estimate how long you might have left in paying off your education debt:
You can read more about the current situation with student debt and inflation here.
