Recent Uni Graduates Might Have to Pay Back Their HECS Debt Sooner Than They Realise

Making just over $730 a week after tax? You may need to start paying back your debt.

As promised, the government has relentlessly pursued their dream of making recent graduates (who statistically, probably aren't even employed full-time yet) pay back their debts earlier.

Proposed changes to HECS repayments will bring the threshold down from $56,000 to $44,999. That's a cool $10k above the minimum wage in Australia and around $35k under the average wage.

Though the bill hasn't been made official yet, these changes could become a reality as soon as the end of this week, after securing crossbench support from One Nation's Pauline Hanson and others.

So, if you're earning around $730 a week after tax, you'd need to start paying back your uni debts, beginning at one per cent and going up to 10 per cent when earning $132,000 or more.

Given how likely this is to pass, when can we expect it to come into effect? Surely, there are at least a few months for us to escape into the wilderness, never to re-emerge.

Well, no.

It's. This. Sunday.

They've also decided to package this fun change with a cap on the HECS loans you can take. After your sum of HECS loans reaches $104,440, you'll be ineligible for further loans until enough of it has been paid back.

These changes are coming from a government full of individuals who benefitted off PM Gough Whitlam's policy that made tertiary education free between 1974 and 1989.

Because of this lovely fact, some have proposed a new, bold idea:

With so many attacks on the higher education system, it certainly feels like the world's against young people, but at least, we have a good chance at a high-paying job, right?

Sadly, that's not even the case right now.