Curtin Student Guild has joined a petition created by the National Union of Students to freeze HECS-HELP debt indexation.
The petition, created by the NUS last week, is addressed to the Federal Government and currently has 700 signatures.
“We are calling on the government in the 2023 Federal Budget to freeze HECS/VET loan indexation temporarily while inflation is elevated,” the petition reads.
“We urge the Government to listen to the voices of students and graduates and take action to end the unfair practice of HECS indexation.”
The ABC reported following the release of March inflation data, HECS-HELP debts will rise by 7.1%.
On 1 June, the total value of Australian HECS loans are expected to increase by $4.5 billion meaning the average student debt will increase by $1,677, this increase will impact any former student earning less than $63,000 per annum.
Curtin Guild believes the current cohort of students will be the first generation of Australians who face the prospect of their ‘quality of living going backwards.’
“Young people are struggling with spiralling cost of living, flat wage growth and soon we will become some of the most indebted Australians in history,” the Guild says.
“This disproportionately affects women and low SES students who take longer to pay off their loans which then compound over longer periods of time.”
Curtin University commerce student Elliott Hill says the prospect of HECS indexation is ‘extremely stressful.’
“Coming straight out of uni into my first job I want a competitive salary but now paying back uni fees is going to be at the back of my mind,” he says.
“So now knowing there’s going to be a rise in my HECS will be a contributing factor when I negotiate pay for sure.”
“It [indexation] makes me super stressed … When I first began at uni I wasn’t told about indexation or anything, you don’t realise how quickly your HECS debt accumulates,” he says.
NUS President Bailey Riley believes the Federal Government is looking to ‘profit’ off young Australians during the cost of living crisis.
“The government keeps telling students to wait for these accords. The time to act is now, not years into the future once student debts are thousands of dollars further in HECS debts,” she says.
The petition can be found here: https://www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/freeze-student-loan-indexation?partner=nus&fbclid=IwAR1F4faNQisyO_Ay0f7BZdMZ633p3VFohsc_uxAOJ2Pr2jhXuqVb4FhyJnI
