The Australian Government’s Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 per cent) Bill 2025 has officially passed Parliament. The one-off reduction applies to the balance before indexation was applied on 1 June 2025. This means only the reduced amount will be indexed.
The minimum repayment threshold has also increased from $54,435 to $67,000. This threshold will continue to increase each year along with growth in wages.
As part of the new marginal repayment system, if you earn less than $67,000, you won’t need to make any compulsory repayments. If you earn over $67,000 your repayments will be calculated on the portion of your income above that threshold (NOTE this is a change as repayments were previously based on ALL income once the threshold was exceeded).
Who does the measure apply to?
If you have an outstanding balance on one of the following student debts, you'll receive a reduction:
any of the HELP loans, including HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP, STARTUP-HELP, SA-HELP, OS-HELP
VET Student Loans
Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans
Student Start-up Loans
Student Financial Supplement Scheme
If you already repaid your outstanding student loans by 1 June 2025, you will not receive the 20% loan reduction.
How do you receive it?
The ATO will automatically apply the reduction. You don’t need to take any action.
You can check your new student loan debt balance on MyGov.
For more information or assistance please contact Infinite Accounting Solutions on 02 9899 4730 or via the contact page at www.ias-ca.com.au.
Source: Australian Government Department of Education