The federal government will slash billions of dollars of student debt for millions of Australians over the coming fortnight.
About 100,000 Australians with a student debt will receive a text message or email from the Australian Taxation Office over the weekend advising them their student debt has been reduced by 20 per cent.
Three million Australians will see their student debt slashed by $16b over the next fortnight.
Education Minister Jason Clare told Weekend Today it was the biggest cut to student debt in Australia’s history.
“This will be $16b of debt wiped off the backs of young Australians,” he said.
“(On Saturday) 100,000 young Australians will get the best text message ever telling them that their debts been cut by 20 per cent, so on average, that means about five and a half grand debt wiped off their back.
“That’s a lot of help for a lot of young people that are just out of TAFE, just out of university or maybe they’re just out of home.”
Mr Clare said Australians with a student debt did not have to do anything to claim the benefit, and that it would be automatically applied to the debt amount at June 1.
“They don’t have to do a thing, just wait for that ding, wait for that text message or email and then you’ll know that it’s happened,” he said.
The government estimated a person with an average debt of $27,600 would see $5520 wiped from their outstanding Higher Education Loan Program loans, saving a person earning $70,000 about $1300 a year on their minimum repayments.
The Federal Government initiative was introduced to help ease cost of living measures for Australians.
