Paying back the loan

You pay back the Student Start-up Loan to the ATO. The way you repay your loan is like Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP) debts and Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) debts.

When and how you must start paying back your loan

You must start making payments through your tax return when your income reaches a certain amount. You can also make extra voluntary payments to pay your loan off sooner.

Read more about how to make a payment on the ATO’s website.

How much your payment will be

When you make a compulsory payment to the ATO through your tax return, you will pay a percentage of your income. The rate you pay depends on how much income you get.

Read more about studying and training loan repayment thresholds and rates on the ATO website.

How indexation is applied

The total amount you pay back for a Student Start-up Loan is the amount you borrowed plus indexation. Indexation is when the amount of your loan is adjusted to reflect the change in the cost of living.

Indexation is applied to your loan balance once it’s 11 months old. It’s applied on 1 June each year. In most situations, this means the amount you pay back will be more than you borrowed.

Read about the current rate of indexation and see examples of how it is applied on the ATO’s website.

What to consider before applying

You should consider how getting a Student Start-up Loan will affect you in the long term before applying for one.

Indexation makes your debt grow each year. If it’s many years before you start compulsory payments, the amount you have to pay back could be much larger than what you borrowed.

We recommend reading about other types of loans and credit before applying for a Student Start-up Loan to make sure you understand all your options.

If you have feedback or complaints about your payments

If you don’t agree with a decision we make about your application for a Student Start-up Loan, you can ask us for an explanation or a review of our decision.

Once you have a Student Start-up Loan, you should direct any feedback or complaints about your loan to the ATO as explained on their website.