On 3 November 2024 the Australian Government announced it will reduce all current Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) debt and other student loan debt by 20%.
Reducing the amount of debt that people currently have by 20% means Australians will have less student debt to pay back.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will automatically apply the one-off 20% reduction to an individual’s HELP accounts before indexation is applied on 1 June 2025.
This means indexation would apply only to the remaining balance e.g. after the HELP debt that has been reduced by 20%.
This reduction builds on the Government’s 2024-2025 Budget announcement in May to cap the HELP indexation rate as well as reducing the indexation applied in 2023 and 2024. This also builds on the Government’s announcement of 2 November 2024 to change the HELP repayment system.
To find out more go to 20% reduction off all outstanding help loans.