Think that sounds wrong? It is. When graduates make HELP debt repayments, these payments aren’t counted before indexation is applied. Your debt keeps growing even while you’re paying it off. A graduate on an average income will pay around $2,000 more just because the government won’t do its sums properly.
Every bank knows to reduce your loan before charging interest. Every credit union does it. Even New Zealand does it for their student loans[1]. But not Australia. Here, we pretend your payments don’t exist.
The system punishes people doing the right thing, treating their debt exactly the same as someone who hasn’t paid a cent. The fix is simple — just count people’s payments before charging interest. That’s it.
This matters because it’s your money. It matters because you’re being charged interest on money you’ve already paid back. It matters because millions of Australians are paying more than they should, just because the government can’t be bothered to update its accounting. It’s your money. Your payments should count.