Tens of thousands of pensioners paying student loans off

[Lilith7]

I'd not realised there were so many of us.

"One Auckland financial mentor said people who had been on low incomes through their lives were sometimes shocked to discover their superannuation was being docked to repay a student loan.
“They wouldn’t be repaying it on a benefit ... I don’t think people realise when they go on to a pension they have to start repaying their student loan from a pension.
“When I’ve said, ‘look, they just don’t have any money’ you get told, ‘they have to pay it back sometime’. I think lots of people who haven’t earnt a lot of money after studying will be quite surprised about that.”
She said half to three-quarters of the pensioners she dealt with had a student loan.
Fincap senior policy adviser Jake Lilley said there should be a mechanism for people collecting debt to look at the wider picture of what was being achieved.
“To take a step back and say, ‘hang on a minute what are we trying to achieve here overall?’ We want this person to be able to live a comfortable life and not having flow-on problems from poverty that arises when you can’t afford things and you end up with a bad outcome that has a cost attachment with that, [like] hospitalisation ... if Studylink debt leads to someone not turning on the heater if they need it.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/tens-of-th...QGPCOYAJU/

[king1]

The debt was willingly taking on by the individual? i'm not sure the fact that it is a government owed debt should garner the special treatment being suggested ie if they can't afford to turn on a heater. It certainly wouldn't get you any special favours if it were private sector debt, why should it be any different for student loan debt...

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I am paying mine off. So what? I am blessed to have access to safe secure housing at a reasonable rent. Slightly more than the usual state house rent, theirs is 25% of nett income, mine is 30% of gross... but THAT allows me to live a reasonable life. Including cheap wine and frittering for fun AND repayments on my student loan.

Because I went back to school as an ancient student... My choice.

And oh, it was so worth it.

The moral of the story is, RENTS are killing us. Not the income related interest free repayment of our student loans...

---

Btw, if I die - which is very likely - before I pay it off, the IRD writes it off. Which gives me a warm fuzzy feeling deep inside my Scottish genes. I do hope it's a National government at the time. A little Fuck You to the bastards.

If I was American though, they'd sue my estate.

Education should be free to anyone who wants to access it. At any age. Anywhere. And it should not be compulsory, at any age. And anywhere.

My expensive MEd says so...

[Lilith7]

I am paying mine off. So what? I am blessed to have access to safe secure housing at a reasonable rent. Slightly more than the usual state house rent, theirs is 25% of nett income, mine is 30% of gross... but THAT allows me to live a reasonable life. Including cheap wine and frittering for fun AND repayments on my student loan.

Because I went back to school as an ancient student... My choice.

And oh, it was so worth it.

The moral of the story is, RENTS  are killing us. Not the income related interest free repayment of our student loans...

---

Btw, if I die  - which is very likely - before I pay it off, the IRD writes it off. Which gives me a warm fuzzy feeling deep inside my Scottish genes. I do hope it's a National government at the time. A little Fuck You to the  bastards.

If I was American though, they'd sue my estate.

Education should be free to anyone who wants to access it. At any age. Anywhere. And it should not be compulsory, at any age. And anywhere.

My expensive MEd says so...

MY Scots genes had me checking, before embarking on that last bit of study into whether or not family would have to repay anything I hadn't managed to by the time I fell off the perch; that was a no so I could go ahead.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

One of the best things I ever did for myself, that last bit of paper. The TLC study repaid itself in exhibition sales, but the post grad was really just for myself so I don't mind paying that off. Ego, it is a dreadful thing, lol...

[Lilith7]

One of the best things I ever did for myself,  that last bit of paper. The TLC study repaid itself in exhibition sales, but the post grad was really just for myself so I don't mind paying that off. Ego, it is a dreadful thing, lol...