Student
Loan Relief
The Australian Government is making changes to reduce student loan debt for more than 3 million people who have a Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) loan or other Australian Government student loan.
Proposed changes to indexation
The Government is proposing changes to how indexation is calculated for Australian Government student loans.
Indexation is applied annually to an individual’s outstanding student loan debt to reflect the changes in the cost of living. The adjustment is applied on 1 June each year, by an amount determined by the change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
In recent years there have been large increases in the CPI, which resulted in a student loan indexation rate of 7.1 per cent in 2023 and 4.7 per cent in 2024.
Lower of Consumer Price Index or Wage Price Index
The student loan changes will make the indexation rate determined instead by the lower of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Wage Price Index (WPI). This change will ensure that indexation will never grow faster than the average wage.
The proposed student loan changes include backdating the change, which will result in an indexation credit being applied to student loans that were subject to the spike in indexation rate in 2023 and 2024.
These changes are subject to the passage of legislation. After the passage of the relevant legislation, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will apply the revised indexation rates to outstanding student loans.
Changes will reduce student loan debt
The student loan changes will be applied retrospectively from 1 June 2023. This means the indexation rate that was applied to loans in 2023 and 2024, will be reduced to the WPI rate, instead of the higher CPI rate.
This means the indexation rate for 2023 will reduce from 7.1 per cent to 3.2 per cent, and the indexation rate for 2024 will reduce from 4.7 per cent to 4.0 per cent.
Impacts to existing Australian Government student loans
If you had an Australian Government student loan on or after 1 June 2023, you will receive a reduction on your student loan balance. This change will apply to:
- Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) loans
- Vocational Education and Training (VET) Student Loans
- Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans
- Other student support loan accounts.
If you repaid your student loan after 1 June 2023, you may receive an indexation credit, and you will receive this as a refund to your nominated bank account as recorded by the ATO (assuming you have no outstanding tax debts).
Estimate your loan relief
The student loan relief (or indexation credit) you may receive will depend on your outstanding student loan amount on 1 June 2023 and 1 June 2024.
To see how you can benefit, use the HELP Indexation Credit Estimator .
After the passage of the legislation, and the law has changed, the ATO will process adjustments to reflect the lower indexation amounts for these years and credit the amount to your study or training support loan.
Check your student loan balance
For instructions on how to access ATO online and check your student loan account in myGov, visit the ATO website
The CPI is an economic indicator which measures changes in the prices of goods and services purchased by households across the country.
The WPI is an economic indicator which measures changes in the price of wages and salaries in the Australian labour market.
On 2 and 3 November 2024, the Australian Government announced proposed changes to student loans, including a 20 per cent reduction in student debts and changes to the way loans are repaid. For more detail on these announcements, visit Higher Education Loan Program .
More information
More information on how this change will benefit you is available at education.gov.au/helpestimator