Hi all,
Amidst the Coronavirus pandemic and economic impacts, I had gotten me thinking what the Government should do (if anything) regarding HECS repayments.
I'm still formulating my opinion, but it seems like a potential area for the Government to target some form of stimulus.
Keen to hear what thoughts are out there on this
Only a fraction of HECS is being repaid. I read once that a big reason was that most graduates are female and besides not taking home as much money & working fewer hours in general many females do not stay in the work force long enough at the minimum repayment threshold to ever repay their HECS debt.
There was a recent article about the large number of very clever and capable ladies who go to uni but barely work in their fields.
Do they just go to uni hoping to snag one of the relatively fewer number of high status educated blokes? Is it fair that those who were too poor to go to uni are left paying the HECS through their tax for this dating service?
What is the result/logic? Is it that the smartest and most attractive get to procreate and the poor who never made it to Uni pay for it through their tax?
I do not think it is fair that unpaid HECS debts are extinguished on death either. If you leave a $1 million plus estate you should be liable to pay off the HECS debt at death even if you never worked hard enough to ever pay it back.
Seriously ? There’s an app for that.
I think the poor procreate more than the rich because of their lack of education and ambition.
As a side note - the point of stimulus is to inject cash into the economy - be it through the DOL or pensioners. Forgiving HECS isn’t going to contribute to the cashflow of the economy. Same as handouts being misused for reducing mortgages.
But I do think a stint in the regionals should be rewarded with a HECS discount. 10% per year so a 10 year stint and its wiped clear. Chances are you would become part of the community and continue to reside there, grow a family, grow the community, grow the regionals.
Would be a cheaper option for the govt. than building more city infrastructure for you and the family you’ll grow while enjoying/paying back your education.
I have read about this being an issue with women of the upper class in India using University as a means to maintain social status and find a husband, not intending to work in their field.
I don't think it applies here - at all. Women who leave the workforce now return after their children are born. The cost of housing means that they cannot afford to stay at home.
i wish there was a discount for a complete upfront payment - like 10-20 percent for the entire course, say?
A discount for those who can already afford it? A terrible idea.
I feel like I remember there used to be a discount for paying off your HECS debt in full, but that was almost 20 years ago and I may not remember that correctly. Senility kicking in perhaps.
There was a bonus for making voluntary payments over a certain amount but it ended about four or five years ago.
No need to freeze..if your flipping burgers at Maccas , you will never have to pay it back
I believe all HECS debts should be cancelled and wiped clean. The government should also pay off all our mortgages, and for those who dont have one, give a one-off payment of $200,000 to put a deposit down on our first home. And of course, welfare should be tripled after that to ensure we can all keep up with the cost of living without having to work.
This is what they do in Scandinavia, after all. Who cares about economic budgets when you can just keep taxing the rich to pay for everything yipee!
Yet another avenue for the pathetic generation to try to scum some sort of subsidy. Seriously? Don't Aussies nowadays do anything other than free-load off the government?