23 July 2025

On 23 July 2025 the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 per cent) Bill 2025 was introduced into Parliament to reduce Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) debt by 20% and making the HELP loan repayment system fairer by increasing the amount people can earn before they are required to start repaying their loan and making the size of their compulsory repayments smaller.

The legislation needs to be passed through both House of Parliament. Once the legislation comes into effect:

  • The ATO will commence retrospectively applying the 20% reduction to the balance of your HELP debt as at 1 June and the indexation that was applied will be adjusted to reflect the reduced debt amount. See the FAQs for more information; and
  • the minimum repayment threshold will increase to $67,000 in 2025-26 and compulsory repayments will only be calculated on the income above the $67,000 threshold rather than total annual income. This means that people will make smaller compulsory repayments, and only once their income reaches a level where they can afford to do so. To find out more go to Making student repayments fairer.